Israeli legislative election, 1951

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The Elections for the second Knesset were held on 30 July, 1951.

[edit] Results

Party	% of vote	Seats at start of session	Seats at end of session
Mapai ¹	37.3%	45	47
General Zionists ²	16.2%	20	22
Mapam ¹	12.5%	15	7
Mizrakhi Workers	6.8%	8	8
Herut Movement	6.6%	8	8
Maki ¹	4.0%	5	7
Progressive Party	3.2%	4	4
Democratic List for Israeli Arabs	2.0%	3	3
Agudat Israel	2.0%	3	3
Sephardim and Oriental Communities ²	1.8%	2	0
Agudat Israel Workers	1.6%	2	2
Mizrakhi	1.5%	2	2
Progress and Work	1.2%	1	1
Yemenite Association	1.2%	1	1
Agriculture and Development	1.1%	1	1
Left Faction ¹	-	0	0
Faction independent of Labour Unity ¹	-	0	0
Labour Unity - Zion Workers ³	-	0	4

¹ Rostam Bastuni, Avraham Berman and Moshe Sneh left Mapam and set up the Left Faction. Bastuni later returned to Mapam whilst Berman and Sneh joined Maki. Hannah Lamdan and David Livschitz left Mapam and set up Independent Labour Unity before joining Mapai.

² Sephardim and Oriental Communities joined the General Zionists

³ Broke away from Mapam, but not recognised as a separate party by the speaker

[edit] The Second Knesset

The second Knesset was highly unstable, with four separate governments and two different Prime Ministers. As with the first Knesset, the speaker was Joseph Sprintzak.

The second Knesset started with David Ben Gurion forming the third government of Israel (the first Knesset had two governments) on 8 October, 1951. His Mapai party formed a coalition with Mizrakhi, the Mizrakhi Workers, Agudat Israel, Agudat Israel Workers and the three Israeli Arab parties, the Democratic List for Israeli Arabs, Progress and Work and Agriculture and Development. Like the first Knesset, there were 13 ministers. The government resigned on 19 December, 1952 due to a dispute with the religious parties over religious education.

Ben Gurion formed the fourth government on 24 December, 1952, dropping the ultra-orthodox parties (Agudat Israel and Agudat Israel Workers) and replacing them with the General Zionists and the Progressive Party. The new government had 16 ministers. Ben Gurion resigned on 6 December, 1953 as he wished to settle in the Negev kibbutz of Sde Boker.

Moshe Sharett formed the fifth government on 26 January, 1954 with the same coalition partners and ministers. Sharett resigned on 29 June, 1955, when the General Zionists refused to abstain from voting on a motion of no-confidence brought by Herut and Maki over the government's position on the trial of Malkiel Gruenwald, who had accused Dr. Israel Kastzner of collaborating with the Nazis.

Sharett formed the sixth government on 29 June 1955, eliminating the General Zionists and the Progressive Party from the coalition and reducing the number of ministers to 12. The new government did not last long, as a general election was called for 26 July, 1955.