9 major generals, 29 women, 49 rookies: Meet the 21st Knesset

Final election results show record number of newcomers will be sworn into parliament on April 30. From Likud to Ra’am Balad, here are Israel’s lawmakers in-waiting

With the complete results from Tuesday’s election announced on Thursday night after two days of tense vote counting, we now finally know how many seats each party will have in the 21st Knesset, and the identities of the 120 people who will fill them.

While a record 39 parties ran in the election, with 14 mounting credible challenges to cross the electoral threshold, the final results gave seats to just 11. That’s one more than the 20th Knesset but well short of the 15 elected in 1999 to the most thinly-spread parliament in Israel’s history.

According to the final tally, however, a record-breaking 49 new MKs will be sworn in on April 30, overtaking the 48 fresh faces elected in 2013, making it the most rookie Knesset since Israel’s first ever elections which saw, somewhat obviously, 120 new lawmakers elected.

Of the rookies, nearly half hail from the recently formed Blue and White party helmed by Benny Gantz, only 11 of whose 35 incoming MKs served in the previous Knesset. The situation is almost exactly reversed for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud, which sees 12 new MKs out of its haul of 36.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, surrounded by Likud politicians and his wife Sara, addresses his supporters as the the results of the Israeli general elections are announced, at the party headquarters in Tel Aviv, in the early hours of April 10, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/FLASH90)

Amid the high turnover, 13 new female MKs were elected, contributing to a matched-record high of 2015’s 29 women elected, a number all the more remarkable for the fact that some parties, such as Shas and United Torah Judaism, are ideologically opposed to women serving as lawmakers and therefore have none on their lists. The number however, falls short of the 36 women who serve in the outgoing Knesset, with seven female lawmakers having entered parliament as replacements in the four-year life of the 20th Knesset.

After the last election saw a large increase in Arab Israeli MKs — 17 entered the Knesset in 2015, up from 12 in 2013 — the number will drop significantly this time to just 11, with turnout in the Arab-Israeli community at its lowest in years. With the 13-seat strong Joint (Arab) List splitting into two dueling parties before this election, the subsequently formed Ra’am-Balad and Hadash-Ta’al gained just four and six seats respectively. Arab-Israeli MK Issawi Frij from Meretz brings the total to 11.

Ultra-Orthodox parties, on the other hand, saw a boost in support, scoring 15 seats in total — eight for Shas and seven for United Torah Judaism — as opposed to the 13 seats they won in 2015.

Some of the new MKs come from local government, others were journalists or activists. But the most widespread shared profession, or rank, at least, among the newcomers is that of major-general. Of the 49 newbies, six had reached the IDF’s second highest rank (including Orna Barbivai, the first and only woman to have attained the position) and another, Yoav Seglovitch, attained the same level in the police, bringing the total number of major general’s serving in the next Knesset to nine. To boot, three of them (Benny Gantz, Moshe Ya’alon and Gabi Ashkenazi) were IDF chiefs of staff.

Maj. Gen. Orna Barbivai (2L), alongside then-IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz (C), 2013. (Flash 90)

Following is a complete list of all of the MKs in the incoming Knesset.

Likud

1. Benjamin Netanyahu
2. Yuli Edelstein
3. Yisrael Katz
4. Gilad Erdan
5. Gideon Sa’ar
6. Miri Regev
7. Yariv Levin
8. Yoav Gallant
9. Nir Barkat
10. Gila Gamliel
11. Avi Dichter
12. Ze’ev Elkin
13. Haim Katz
14. Tzachi Hanegbi
15. Ofir Akunis
16. Yuval Steinitz
17. Tzipi Hotovely
18. David Amsalem
19. Amir Ohana
20. Ofir Katz
21. Etti Atia
22. Yoav Kisch
23. David Bitan
24. Keren Barak
25. Shomo Karai
26. Miki Zohar
27. Eli Ben Dahan (from the Union of Right-Wing Parties)
28. Sharren Haskel
29. Michal Shir
30. Kati Shitrit
31. Petin Mulla
32. Mai Golan
33. Uzi Dayan
34. Ariel Kellner
35. Osnat Mark
36. Amit Halevy

Blue and White

1. Benny Gantz
2. Yair Lapid
3. Moshe Ya’alon
4. Gabi Ashkenazi
5. Avi Nissenkorn
6. Meir Cohen
7. Miki Haimovitch
8. Ofer Shelah
9. Yoaz Hendel
10. Orna Barbivai
11. Michael Biton
12. Hili Tropper
13. Yael German
14. Tzvi Hauser
15. Orit Farkash-Hacohen
16. Karin Elharar
17. Meirav Cohen
18. Yoel Rozbozov
19. Assaf Zamir
20. Yizhar Shai
21. Elazar Stern
22. Miki Levy
23. Omer Yankelovitch
24. Pnina Tamano-Shata
25. Gadeer Mreeh
26. Ram Ben Barak
27. Alon Shuster
28. Yoav Seglovich
29. Ram Shefa
30. Boaz Toporovsky
31. Orli Froman
32. Eitan Ginzburg
33. Gadi Yevarkan
34. Idan Roll
35. Yorai Lahav Harzanu