The Greens (Hebrew: הירוקים, HaYerukim) is a minor political party in Israel currently headed by Pe'er Visner. Although the party is currently not represented in the Knesset, it does hold seats in 22 municipalities across Israel.
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The Green Party of Israel was established in December 1997.[1]
In the 2006 elections, they won 47,595 votes (1.52%). However, it was not enough to pass the 2% threshold, and they were ultimately the largest party not to make it into the Knesset (Balad, with 72,066 votes, was the smallest to make it). For the previous elections in 2003, the electoral threshold had been 1.5%.
However, as a result of substantial gains in the November 2008 municipal elections, the Greens hold a total of 50 seats across 22 municipalities. In Haifa, where former Green candidate (presently of Kadima) Yona Yahav was re-elected to a second mayoral term, the Greens hold four seats, while in Tel Aviv, where Green Party chair Pe'er Visner serves as deputy mayor, the Greens hold three seats.[2]
The Green Party campaigned intensively for the 2009 national elections, held on the 10th of February 2009. Polls by a number of national newspapers had predicted that the party could win around 2-3 seats, putting Greens in the Knesset for the first time. Under the Israeli system of coalition government, this could have provided an opportunity for the Greens, who would likely have been seen as an equally acceptable partner in either a left- or right-wing coalition, to serve as part of the next Israeli government. Importantly, because coalition governments can fall without the minimum amount of support, even a small number of seats would likely provide the Greens with a significant amount of influence over decisions not seen as being particularly contentious (such as environmental protection, which is in theory supported by most Israeli political parties). In the end, however, they failed to pass the electoral threshold and did not win any seats.
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