LIVE BLOG: Israeli Elections
Israeli polls opened on Tuesday as voters determine whether Israelis still want incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as leader, or will seek change after six years.
With final opinion polls giving centre-left Zionist Union, led by Labor head Isaac Herzog a 3-4 seat lead over Netanyahu, the election could be a nail biter - although whoever wins will depend entirely on the remaining Knesset members and their parties to form the next government.
It is unlikely that the make up of the next government will be clear for at least several days, potentially weeks, but polls have also predicted that the Joint List party, which includes many politicians who are Palestinian citizens of Israel who have been on the political margins for years, is likely to become the third-largest faction in the Knesset and bring the minority into the decision-making mainstream.
Some observers have noted that the focus on the elections has drifted from hard issues - like the economy and security - to focus squarely on whether voters want to keep Netanyahu or not.
Others accentuate the identity politics that underline the Israeli political scene and say that beyond social issues or a Netanyahu referendum, voters will be motivated by their religious and ethnic affiliations.
And then there are a whole segment of Palestinian citizens of Israel who are boycotting the election altogether, many telling Middle East Eye that they believe voting normalises a system of discrimination that does not see them as equal citizens of Israel in comparison to their Jewish Israeli neighbours.
Nearly 6 million voters will be able cast their vote until 8pm GMT. We'll be following developments here with commentary and news. Stay with us for updates throughout the day.
Live Updates
Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party has won 30 seats in Israel's Knesset, with 100 percent of votes counted, Israeli media reported Wednesday.
The Zionist Union, which is led by Isaac Herzog, came in second place with 24 seats, Israel Public Radio added.
The Joint List, made up of four Arab parties, won 13 seats, whereas the Yesh Atid Party, which is led by former finance minister Yair Lapid, won 11 seats.
Kulano party, which is led by former communication minister Moshe Kahlon, won 10 seats and the Jewish Home Party, which is led by former economy minister Naftali Bennett, eight seats.
Shas and United Judaism won seven seats each, the radio said, adding that Yisrael Beiteinu Party won six seats and Meretz four seats.
In the Nazareth headquarters of the Joint List after midnight Wednesday, members of the Knesset addressed a crowd of supporters, who sang and danced and raised Palestinian flags.
Dov Khenin, an MK of the left-wing Jewish-Arab Hadash party, said: "One thing you can say about the day we’ve been through is that Prime Minister Netanyahu has crossed every red line in his behaviour.
"A prime minister that runs an election campaign and instead of calling citizens to go and vote, he says beware, citizens are voting - this is a prime minister that cannot go on in his position," Khenin said.
Stav Shaffir, a Labor politician and member of the Israeli Knesset since 2013, told MEE:
"These are pretty amazing results. We started this campaign with 12 or 13 sets and today we got at least 27 seats. Netanyahu does not have a political bloc to build a new government, so we are waiting to see the real results in the last few hours ... to see where we are heading. But what has been proven now is that this Israeli public said clearly that they don't trust Netanyahu anymore. The Left-centre bloc in Israel became much bigger. Much bigger than we've seen in recent years and that means a lot."
In the latest count, Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party leads in Israel's Knesset election with 24.4 percent of votes, according to Israel's election commission.
The Zionist Union, led by Isaac Herzog, comes in second position with 19 percent of the votes, the commission was quoted by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth as adding after counting 57 percent of ballot boxes in polling stations across Israel.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin prefers a national government to be formed by the right-wing Likud Party and the centrist Zionist Union alliance, sources close to the President told Israeli media Wednesday.
The sources told Channel 10 that Rivlin preferred this option, even as he would not impose it on any of the two rival political blocs.
"The President's suggestion is based on the close results each of the two camps achieved in the Knesset election," one of the sources said.
Meanwhile, the Israeli news site Ynet quoted sources close to Rivlin as saying that "the president reads and understands that Netanyahu has the ability to form a coalition very quickly."
"The right choice in his eyes is a unity government that will be a strong government; however, if the sides are not interested in this he will not force it."
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed victory in the Israeli elections after midnight on Wednesday, Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog said he was still in the race to form Israel's next government.
"Everything is open," Herzog told activists in Tel Aviv after analysts said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would have a far easier task of putting together a 61-seat majority than Herzog.
"I intend to make every effort to build a real social government in Israel."
Meanwhile, Netanyahu addressed a crowd of supporters, saying he had won the election.
“Against all odds, we achieved a great victory for Likud. We achieved a great victory for our people,” the Times of Israel quoted him as saying.
“And now we must establish a strong, stable government that will take care of the security and welfare of all Israel’s citizens.”
Joint List leader Ayman Odeh told MEE:
“We reached our goals. We are the third biggest party. The voting percentage among the Arab population was the highest since 1999, and we will prevent the right-wing from creating the next government. The joint list is a success story: we are at the heart of a historical event."
Wael Omri, 53, a voter from Nazareth said:
“I think it's a historic event. It's the first time the Arabs come together: you can see the journalists everywhere. We've never seen this before: a point when all the world and Israel sees that Arabs here as a big power, [and see] that we can have our rights. We want to see a government in Israel that says yes to our rights.”
On the day of the Israeli election, Israeli troops arrested seven people, including Palestinians, Israelis and international activists.
The arrests were made in the West Bank on Tuesday, during a protest against the 'E1' plans, which would see Israel annex some West Bank settlements behind the separation wall.
One of the participants, Mustafa Bargouthi, secretary-general of the Palestine National Initiative (PNI) told MEE: "We don't care about the Israeli elections whatever the result will be. We are here to prove that struggle in the field is the only way for freedom".
An anarchist Israeli activist said: "I didn't vote this morning because I don't believe that we can change anything from inside an apartheid system".
"I support my friends who voted for the Arab Joint List but I don't believe they will succeed in the election".
Chairman of Yisrael Beiteinu, Avigdor Lieberman, has warned that only a vote for his party can ensure that the Islamic State (IS) does not gain a foothold in Israel.
"Whoever wants to prevent an ISIS branch and an al-Qaida cell in Israel must vote for Yisrael Beiteinu," he said, while touring polling stations in Ashkelon.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that toppling the Palestinian movement Hamas should be the top priority of the next Israeli government.
"Hamas continues to dig tunnels and upgrade rockets because the Israeli leadership is weak," Lieberman said.
"This is why Israel has to change its way of dealing with this terrorist movement [Hamas]," he added, according to Israel Public Radio.
Lieberman said Israel could only sign an agreement with Hamas to prevent any future military confrontations when the group's leaders were eliminated.
In Maasiyahu prison in the city of Ramle, both Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel are voting. All prisoners are there reportedly for criminal offences.
Shelly Yachimovich, second on the Zionist Union list and former leader of the Labor Party, has slammed Netanyahu for his warning to voters over the high turnout of Arabs in the election.
Answering a question from a voter on Facebook, Yachimovich said: “No Western leader would dare utter such a racist comment. Imagine a prime minister/president in any democracy who would warn that his rule is in jeopardy because, e.g., ‘Black voters are coming in droves to the polling stations’ … Horrendous, isn’t it? In any case, I think what worries Bibi is that Israeli citizens are moving in droves to the ballots, and quite simply want to democratically topple him.”
Victoria and Gary walk out of a polling station in the city of Holon, south of Tel Aviv, 17 March 2015, after voting for Yair Lapid's Yesh Adit party. They voted shortly before making their way to their wedding.
Gray told MEE: "We chose to do our wedding on the election date because we thought it's a nice date, we are supporters of Yair Lapid and his party Yesh Adit."
(Source: http://imeu.org/)
Ayman Odeh, leader of the Joint List - which has brought Palestinian political parties in Israel together for the first time - votes in today's election near his house.
Odeh, who is also the leader of the Jewish-Palestinian communist Hadah party, drew wide attention last month when he reproached Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman for failing to use his name in live televised debates, writes MEE's Meron Rapoport.
"I'm an Arab and I have a name. It's Ayman Odeh," he told Lieberman.
Latest polls show the Joint List is likely to become the third-largest faction in the Knesset, which would bring Palestinian citizens of Israel out of the Israeli political sidelines.
While some are reporting that it appears there is a larger turnout than usual of Palestinian citizens of Israel today as a result of the Joint List, it is not without its critics amongst the Palestinian community.
"Practically speaking, they cannot do anything to influence the Knesset, not even symbolically," Fida Shehadeh, a boycott campaigner in Lod, told MEE this week.
