Parties, Lists, Parliamentary Groups, Movements

	The Electoral System
	About Elections
	The Central Elections Committee
	Voting Percentages in Past Elections

Background

Parties, Lists, Parliamentary Groups, and Movements

Parties
According to the Parties Law (1992), a party is defined as a group of people who have come together in order to pursue legally political or social goals, and to bring about their representation in the Knesset. Since the passing of this law, there are clear regulations regarding the establishment of parties, their registration with the Parties Registrar, their institutions, assets, activities, finances, etc... The law also determines the limitations on a party's potential registration. The following prohibitions are included in these limitations:

Any rejection (in the party's goals or activities) of the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish, democratic state.
Any incitement to racism.
Any support of the armed struggle of an enemy state or terrorist organization against the State of Israel
Any hint of a cover for illegal activity.

Lists
The bodies which participate in the Knesset elections are called "lists." A list must consist of at least one registered party, but it could also contain several parties. For example, in the elections for the Fifteenth Knesset, the list "One Israel" consisted of the Labor Party, Meimad, and Gesher.

A list may also include individuals and movements that are not registered as parties. Such was the case in the elections for the Fourteenth Knesset in the United Arab List which consisted of the Arab Democratic Party (a registered party) and individuals from the Islamic Movement, which is not registered as a party.

The Central Elections Committee has the right to invalidate the candidacy of any list whose actions or goals negate the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, incite to racism, or support the armed struggle of an enemy state or terrorist organization against the State of Israel.

Parliamentary Groups (also called "factions")
Once a list is elected to the Knesset, it becomes a Parliamentary Group, even if the distinct parties in it continue to function individually on the outside. According to the Parties Financing Law (1973), the Knesset Committee may, after the elections, recognize a new parliamentary group in any of the following situations: One which broke off from an existing parliamentary group (such as in 1984, Mapam broke off from the Alignment); a new parliamentary group which is made up of Knesset members who were originally part of other groups (such as the new Center Party in the fourteenth Knesset, made up of Knesset members from Labor and the Likud); or a new parliamentary group which is created through the unification of two existing parliamentary groups (which occurred in the Twelfth Knesset when Meretz was formed from Ratz, Mapam, and Shinui).

The law also fixes limitations on the recognition of new parliamentary groups. Usually, before upcoming elections, there is intensified activity setting up new parliamentary groups because the financing of parties depends partly on the number of seats belonging to the corresponding parliamentary groups in the current Knesset.

Movements
The law does not recognize movements as distinct legal entities. However, a movement may register as a party, a non-profit organization, a company, or as any other legally recognized body. In other words, "movement" is simply a word also used as part of a name ("youth movement," "Herut Movement"), but by itself having no legal standing.