On this day in 1949, the newly established State of Israel held its first elections, in which David Ben-Gurion’s political party, Mapai, won, making Ben-Gurion the first-ever Israeli prime minister.
According to Israel’s National Library archives, the elections were not for the Knesset, which did not exist yet, but for the Constituent Assembly, a body tasked with formulating a constitution for the emerging state.
Although Israel’s Declaration of Independence states, “We declare that, with effect from the moment of the termination of the British Mandate being tonight, the eve of Sabbath, the 6th of Iyar, 5708 (15th May 1948), until the establishment of the elected, regular authorities of the State in accordance with the Constitution which shall be adopted by the Elected Constituent Assembly no later than the 1st October 1948,” the elections weren’t held until January 25 due to the ongoing war.
In the months before the election, Israel was governed by the Provisional State Council, which consisted of 37 members drawn from the leadership of national institutions such as the Jewish Agency and the national council from the British Mandate period.
This temporary arrangement was based on the principles outlined in Israel’s Declaration of Independence.
In November 1948, the Provisional State Council decided that the Constituent Assembly would have 120 members, a number that remains symbolic of the modern Knesset. To prepare for the elections, a national census was conducted on November 8, 1948. This required a seven-hour curfew across the country while officials went door to door collecting data to create the voter registry.
The Declaration of Independence initially mandated that elections be held by October 1, 1948, but the ongoing War of Independence delayed the process.
Conditions were only secure enough to hold the election in late January 1949, after stabilization in the South and the near conclusion of the war.
With just over 500,000 eligible voters and approximately 1,000 polling stations set up nationwide, the election marked a significant milestone in Israel’s democratic development. The representational electoral system, first used during the British Mandate, was adopted for this election and remains the basis for Israel’s electoral framework today.
The Constituent Assembly became the Knesset
The Constituent Assembly had only met four times after the elections when the Assembly adopted the Transition Law and then was renamed to Knesset two days after the opening sitting, according to the Knesset’s official site.
According to Israel’s official site, “nearly 85% of all eligible voters cast their ballots,” even though the War of Independence was still raging on.
David Ben-Gurion’s party, Mapai, received the most votes, with 35.7% of the vote. Mapam, the party that was known to have been pro-Soviet until Joseph Stalin’s death, received 14.7% of the votes.
Who was the first Prime Minister?
David Ben-Gurion, the father of the State of Israel, was the first prime minister. He was born in Poland in 1886 and joined the socialist-Zionist group Poalei Zion (Workers of Zion) before immigrating to Israel in 1906, according to the National Library of Israel.
He was very instrumental in creating the first agricultural worker’s commune, a precursor to Kibbutz and Hashomer (The Watchman), a Jewish self-defense group.
Ben-Gurion served as the first secretary general of the Histadrut, Israel’s trade union movement, and in 1930 became the leader of the Mapai party.
He led the fight against the British White Paper, which restricted Jewish immigration and settlement in Israel. Following the UN’s vote on the Partition Plan on November 29, 1947, Ben-Gurion began building the infrastructure of the new state.
After declaring the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, he became the first prime minister and defense minister. During his tenure, he oversaw the development of Israel’s infrastructure, the absorption of massive waves of immigrants – including Holocaust survivors and Jews fleeing Arab countries – and the establishment of Israel’s economic and military stability.
In 1953, Ben-Gurion retired to Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev desert but returned to politics in 1955 as defense minister and later resumed the role of prime minister. He finally retired in 1970 and returned to Sde Boker, where he passed away in 1973.
1949 Israeli General Elections
The 1949 elections, held on January 25, 1949, had originally been scheduled for the previous October but were delayed due to the war. The elections were initially meant to select members of the Constituent Assembly tasked with drafting a constitution. However, after the elections, the Constituent Assembly was renamed Israel’s First Knesset.
Despite its original mission, the Knesset was unable to agree on a constitution, and to this day, Israel does not have one. The turnout for the elections was an impressive 87%, with a festive atmosphere surrounding the event.
Issues of religion and state were also a topic Israelis voted on in the first election, according to Israel’s Democracy Institute. This issue has been an important topic in Israel’s most recent elections, with issues like the draft law and public transportation on Shabbat discussed in coalition agreements and campaign ads.
The two leading parties were the pro-Western Mapai, led by Ben-Gurion, and the pro-Soviet Mapam. Mapai won 46 out of 120 seats in the Knesset. Instead of forming a coalition with Mapam, which won 19 seats, Ben-Gurion opted to create a coalition with centrist and religious parties, leaving Mapam and Menchem Begin’s Herut party in opposition.
Professor Chaim Weizmann, the President of the Provisional State Council, spoke at the opening sitting of the Assembly, where he was elected as Israel’s first president.
“It is with a sense of honor and awe that I rise to open the Constituent Assembly of the State of Israel, the first Jewish assembly of our day, in Jerusalem, the eternal city,” he said. “At this great moment in the history of our people, we give thanks and praise to the God of Israel, by whose grace we have been privileged to see redemption after generations of suffering and misery…Knesset members, I congratulate you on your first meeting. Remember that the eyes of the whole Jewish world are upon you and that the yearning and prayers of past generations accompany you.”
Poet Nathan Alterman wrote a poem in honor of the first sitting called “With the First Knesset,” in which he described how he saw the future of the Knesset.
Following Weizmann’s speech, Joseph Shprinzak was elected as Speaker of the Constituent Assembly, according to the Knesset site.
Eve Young contributed to this article.
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