The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, has 120 members. Both the name and the number come from the Great Assembly (Knesset HaGedolah), which according to tradition gathered 120 sages and prophets after the return from the Babylonian exile. The number was set on February 16, 1949, the first day of the first Knesset.
## One district, party lists
Israel is not divided into districts: the whole country votes together. You don’t vote for a member of parliament but for a list, a party and its candidates in a fixed order. If a list wins five seats, its first five names enter the Knesset.
## A slip of paper, a blue envelope
In the booth, each list has its own slip of paper, marked with its Hebrew letters. Voters pick one, slide it into a blue envelope, then drop the envelope into the ballot box, the “kalpi.”
To enter the Knesset, a list needs at least 3.25% of the valid votes, roughly four seats. Below that, it gets no seats, and its votes are left out of the count.
To govern, you need a majority: 61 seats out of 120. Since 1949, no list has ever won it alone. The record still belongs to the Alignment, with 56 seats in 1969.
So parties team up. After the vote, the president meets the representatives of every elected list, then asks one member of the Knesset to form a coalition, with 28 days to do it and up to 14 more if the president grants them. The government takes office only after a confidence vote in the Knesset.
Jews, Arabs, Druze, secular, religious: every citizen aged 18 and over has one vote. Election day is a public holiday, so everyone can get to the polls. One condition, though: you have to be in Israel. There is no absentee ballot and no polling station abroad, except for diplomats and official state envoys.
Jews, Arabs, Druze, secular, religious: every citizen aged 18 and over has one vote.
Since 1949, twenty-five Knessets. Today, the twenty-sixth. One slip of paper at a time.
*Sources: [Wikipedia, Knesset](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knesset); [Wikipedia, Elections in Israel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Israel); [Israel Democracy Institute, the 1969 elections](https://en.idi.org.il/israeli-elections-and-parties/elections/1969/); [My Jewish Learning, why 120](https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/why-does-the-israeli-knesset-have-120-members/); [Times of Israel, envoys voting abroad](https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-emissaries-abroad-end-voting-with-turnout-17-percentage-points-higher-than-2022/); Basic Law: The Government.*
