EXPLAINED
THE ISRAELI ELECTORAL SYSTEM
Israel has only one house in its legislature, the Knesset. Elected representatives are referred to as MKs, Members of the Knesset.
The voting system is entirely proportional, and the number of seats is directly related to the number of votes each party gets.
Just as in the UK, Israelis over the age of 18 vote for 120 seats in the Knesset on a paper ballot.
Citizens vote for the list of candidates put forward by the party of their choice rather than an individual. The system is designed to produce a coalition with the goal of producing more political consensus.
A single party has never achieved an outright majority of 61.
The largest number of seats a single party has got in an election was the Alignment party (now part of Labor) in 1969 with 56 seats.
This proportional system ensures that the political, religious and ethnic diversity of Israeli society is represented in the legislature.
However, this system can give small parties an outsized influence as they often hold the balance of power.
There is a “threshold” of 3.25% which parties have to reach to get any seats, the most recent election in 2022 was affected by a leftwing party and an Arab party both just missing this bar and losing all their MKs.
As the government is made up of many political parties with competing priorities, the governments often aren't very stable.
Between 2018 and 2022 there were 5 snap elections in four years.
Whilst this system does keep politicians in tune with the needs of Israeli people, it does make long term policy change difficult. As the system is entirely proportional, there are no constituencies. Individuals who want to get in touch with an elected representative would simply choose any of the 120 MKs to approach.