2015 Israeli legislative election
election for the twentieth Knesset
Early legislative elections were held in Israel on 17 March 2015 to elect the 120 members of the twentieth Knesset. Disagreements within the governing coalition, particularly over the budget and a "Jewish state" proposal, led to the dissolution of the government in December 2014. The Labor Party and Hatnuah formed a coalition, called Zionist Union, with the hope of defeating the Likud party, which had led the previous governing coalition along with Yisrael Beiteinu, Yesh Atid, The Jewish Home, and Hatnuah.
The incumbent prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud, declared victory in the election, with Likud picking up the highest number of votes. President Reuven Rivlin granted Netanyahu an extension until 6 May 2015 to build a coalition when one had not been finalized in the first four weeks of negotiations. He formed a coalition government within two hours of the midnight 6 May deadline. His Likud party formed the coalition with the Jewish Home, United Torah Judaism, Kulanu, and Shas, with the bare minimum 61 seats. Yisrael Beiteinu later joined the coalition in May 2016.
Background
During late November and early December 2014, there were serious disagreements between parties in the governing coalition, particularly over the budget and a "Jewish state" proposal. On 2 December, Likud announced it would support a dissolution bill, with a vote scheduled for 8 December.
“2015 Israeli legislative election” enters the record as election for the twentieth Knesset. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Israeli, legislative and election can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17012412. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2015, 2014 and 2016.
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