Dateline Jerusalem – Next month Israeli voters will go to the polls to elect a new government. Although Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, our political system is nothing like that of the United States. It can be more closely associated with Britain, probably because the British were in control of the area before Israel gained independence. As a student of political science in undergraduate studies and having taken international law courses in law school, I find Israeli elections fascinating, but confusing and sometimes outright disturbing.
Thirty-six political parties compete. Unlike the States, Israelis do not vote for candidates, but for parties. Because there are so many parties, no one group ever has won a majority of seats in a national election. Therefore, parties enter into coalitions or alliances to form a government. There is a breakdown in the system when coalitions fall apart. New elections are held. Unlike the U.S., there is no Electoral College that determines the outcome. Popular vote prevails with every vote counting toward the final outcome. I vote in U.S. elections via absentee ballot, but there is no such thing in Israel, except for diplomats residing abroad. Therefore, charter flights deliver planeloads of Israeli citizens back to Israel to cast their ballots. All citizens have the right to vote, no matter their religion, ethnicity, gender or political views.
Election Day is a paid national holiday. Most people do not have to go to work. If they must work, only for part of the day. For those who live in one city and work in another, free bus and train transportation is available so Israelis can exercise their right to vote. Interestingly, polls are set up in hospitals. To accommodate all voters, polling places are open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Inveterate Polling
Everyday there have been and will be polls indicating how Israelis will be voting. Results vary daily. Yet in the four days prior to voting, there can be no published polls, exit polls, or even predictions of how Israelis will vote. This prevents undue influence before the polls close. Nothing like living in California where news reports of who is President are announced before the polls even close because of the exit polls and ballot counting on the East Coast.
Each party is represented by a Hebrew letter or combination of letters that do not spell the name of the party. Unless you know in advance the letters the party is using at the ballot box, you will be at a total loss. My polling place usually is at a school. Before anyone can vote, we must show our “teudat zehut,” an ID card with our ID number, address and photo or show an Israeli passport to voting officials. This is checked against the voter list. The picture ID helps cut down on voter fraud. Polling officials keep the ID card and do not return it until we hand them a sealed envelope with our vote. There are no voting machines to break down, no ballots to mark, no chads to punch. Voting in Israel means having private access to a tray of post-it-size pieces of paper with letters representing all 36 parties plus blank pieces of paper so a voter can write in the letter of the party chosen if a party's slips run out or someone steals the slips of the competition party. A voter puts the slip of choice in an envelope, seals it and drops it into the ballot box. The number of votes a party gets will determine the number of people from that party who will earn a seat in the Knesset, the Israeli legislature.
The March election is to choose a new government and a Prime Minister, the equivalent of a U.S. President. There is a president of Israel, a figurehead position with some ceremonial powers – that is until recent years when some presidents acted as though they were making the decisions normally assigned to the Prime Minister. Although the Knesset has the job of enacting legislation, the Supreme Court often has its own agenda and usurps the legislative branch's powers. The Supreme Court is not accountable to Israeli voters. The Israeli Supreme Court believes in judicial activism and often overrules legislation democratically passed in the Knesset. Even worse, sometimes they make laws that never were passed by the Knesset or put to a referendum by the people. Britain's Supreme Court is banned from overruling legislation passed by the Parliament. The U.S. Supreme Court has nine justices ruling on a case. In Israel it is mostly a panel of three justices although there are 13 members of the Court. Since Israel has no written constitution, the Israeli Supreme Court amended the Basic Laws passed by the Knesset in 1992. The Court gave itself the power to create laws based on their decisions without legal precedent and contrary to legislation passed by the Knesset.
L'hitraot. Shachar
