‘Prophetic’ high school sees Zionist Union election win

11th and 12th graders voting in mock polling day put Netanyahu’s Likud party in third place behind Yesh Atid

By Stuart Winer

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22 February 2015, 5:16 pm

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Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.

Students of the Blich high school in Ramat Gan campaign for different parties during a mock elections on February 22, 2015. (photo credit: Flash90)

A mock election held on Sunday at a high school famous for successfully predicting surprise changes in government foresaw the Zionist Union joint list galloping to victory with 38 seats, and the Likud party reduced to only the third-largest party in parliament.

Some 1,000 11th- and 12th-graders took part in the traditional Blich High School election in Ramat Gan. The results envisaged the Yesh Atid party, led by Yair Lapid, coming in second with 34 seats out of the Knesset’s 120.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party trailed behind in third place with just 17 seats, and the national-religious Jewish Home party scored just 12.

The left-wing Meretz party rocketed to 11 seats while the newly formed Kulanu, led by ex-Likud minister Moshe Kahalon, won six places in the imagined Knesset.

Foreign Minister Avidgor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party scraped up just two seats, while none of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties or the Joint Arab List won enough votes to cross the threshold.

Results of mock elections held by the Blich High School in Ramat Gan, February 22, 2015. (photo credit: Stuart Winer/Times of Israel)

By comparison, recent polls of vote-eligible Israelis showed Likud and the Zionist Union — comprising the Labor and Hatnua parties — holding even at about 24 seats each, with Jewish Home winning 13 seats, and Yesh Atid scoring 10-12 seats, just ahead of Kulanu with eight.

Yisrael Beytenu has been trailing behind with just 5-6 seats, while Meretz has been predicted to garner 4-6 seats.

The two main ultra-Orthodox parties — Shas and United Torah Judaism — were each predicted to win seven seats, and the Yachad party, a breakaway from Shas, four.

Comparison of results from Blich High School mock election results and public opinion polls. (photo credit: Stuart Winer/Times of Israel)

The polls found that the Joint Arab List would win 12-14 seats. However, the list’s poor showing in the Blich election could be attributed to an under-representation of the Arab community in a predominantly Jewish school. Likewise, the ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi parties, are not proportionately represented in the Blich school.

Israelis head to the polls for the real elections on March 17.

The Blich High School has, in the past, foretold unexpected general election results — including the last vote in 2013 when it correctly predicted a strong showing for the Yesh Atid party, which, at the time, was competing in its first elections. Yesh Atid went on to win 19 seats in the Knesset, making it the second-largest party.