# 1955 Israeli legislative election

Elections for the third Knesset were held in Israel on 26 July 1955. Voter turnout was 82.8%.

## Parliament factions

The table below lists the parliamentary factions represented in the 2nd Knesset.
| Name | Name | Ideology | Symbol | Leader | 1951 result | 1951 result | Seats at 1954 dissolution |
| Name | Name | Ideology | Symbol | Leader | Votes (%) | Seats | Seats at 1954 dissolution |
| | Mapai | Social democracy Labor Zionism | א‎ | David Ben-Gurion | 37.3% | 45 / 120 | 47 / 120 |
| | General Zionists | Liberalism | צ‎ | Israel Rokach | 16.2% | 20 / 120 | 22 / 120 |
| | Mapam | Labor Zionism Socialism | מ‎ | Meir Ya'ari | 12.5% | 15 / 120 | 7 / 120 |
| | Hapoel HaMizrachi | Religious Zionism | ו‎ | Haim-Moshe Shapira | 6.8% | 8 / 120 | 8 / 120 |
| | Herut | Revisionist Zionism | ח‎ | Menachem Begin | 6.6% | 8 / 120 | 8 / 120 |
| | Maki | Communism | ק‎ | Shmuel Mikunis | 4.0% | 5 / 120 | 7 / 120 |
| | Ahdut HaAvoda | Labor Zionism | תו‎ | Yitzhak-Meir Levin | - | 0 / 120 | 4 / 120 |
| | Progressive Party | Liberalism Progressivism | פ‎ | Pinchas Rosen | 3.2% | 4 / 120 | 4 / 120 |
| | Democratic List for Israeli Arabs | Arab satellite list | יד‎ | Seif el-Din el-Zoubi | 2.0% | 3 / 120 | 3 / 120 |
| | Agudat Yisrael | Religious conservatism | ג‎ | Yitzhak-Meir Levin | 2.0% | 3 / 120 | 3 / 120 |
| | Sephardim and Oriental Communities | Sephardic and Mizrahi interests | סצ‎ | Eliyahu Elyashar | 1.8% | 2 / 120 | 0 / 120 |
| | Poalei Agudat Yisrael | Religious conservatism | ד‎ | Binyamin Mintz | 1.6% | 2 / 120 | 2 / 120 |
| | Mizrachi | Religious Zionism | ב‎ | David-Zvi Pinkas | 1.5% | 2 / 120 | 2 / 120 |
| | Progress and Work | Arab satellite list | נ‎ | Salah-Hassan Hanifes | 1.2% | 1 / 120 | 1 / 120 |
| | Yemenite Association | Yemenite Jewish interest | ל‎ | Shimon Garidi | 1.2% | 1 / 120 | 1 / 120 |
| | Agriculture and Development | Arab satellite list | ע‎ | Faras Hamdan | 1.1% | 1 / 120 | 1 / 120 |

## Results

Mapai retained its plurality in the Knesset, although its share of the vote dropped by 5.1 and its share of seats dropped from 47 (at the end of the Second Knesset) to 40. Meanwhile, Herut overtook the General Zionists, Mapam, and Hapoel HaMizrachi to become the second-largest party, with its share of seats nearly doubling (from 8 in the Second Knesset to 15 in the Third).
The Third Knesset is notable for being the only Knesset thus far in which none of the represented parties merged or split (although two parties did change their names) and no MKs switched parties, making it the most stable Knesset in Israel's history.
| | Mapai | 274,735 | 32.20 | 40 | −5 |
| | Herut | 107,190 | 12.56 | 15 | +7 |
| | General Zionists | 87,099 | 10.21 | 13 | −7 |
| | National Religious Front | 77,936 | 9.13 | 11 | +1 |
| | Ahdut HaAvoda | 69,475 | 8.14 | 10 | New |
| | Mapam | 62,401 | 7.31 | 9 | −6 |
| | Religious Torah Front | 39,836 | 4.67 | 6 | +1 |
| | Maki | 38,492 | 4.51 | 6 | +1 |
| | Progressive Party | 37,661 | 4.41 | 5 | +1 |
| | Democratic List for Israeli Arabs | 15,475 | 1.81 | 2 | −1 |
| | Progress and Work | 12,511 | 1.47 | 2 | +1 |
| | Agriculture and Development | 9,791 | 1.15 | 1 | 0 |
| | Sephardim and Oriental Communities | 6,994 | 0.82 | 0 | −2 |
| | Arab List – The Centre | 4,484 | 0.53 | 0 | New |
| | Likud – Popular Economic Movement | 3,044 | 0.36 | 0 | New |
| | Yemenite Association | 2,459 | 0.29 | 0 | −1 |
| | Original Religious List | 2,448 | 0.29 | 0 | New |
| | New Immigrants' List | 1,188 | 0.14 | 0 | New |
| Total | Total | 853,219 | 100.00 | 120 | 0 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | 853,219 | 97.38 | | |
| Invalid/blank votes | Invalid/blank votes | 22,969 | 2.62 | | |
| Total votes | Total votes | 876,188 | 100.00 | | |
| Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 1,057,795 | 82.83 | | |
| Source: CEC, Nohlen et al. ||||||

## Aftermath

Unlike the second Knesset, the third Knesset was one of the most stable in Israel's history. There were only two governments, and it was the only Knesset to date during which none of the parties split or merged. As with the first and second Knesset, the speaker was Yosef Sprinzak until his death on 28 January 1959. He was replaced by Ahdut HaAvoda's Nahum Nir.

### Seventh government

The third Knesset started with David Ben-Gurion forming the seventh government of Israel (the previous two Knessets had six governments; two in the first and four in the second) on 3 November 1955. His Mapai party formed a coalition with the National Religious Front (which later changed its name to the National Religious Party), Mapam, the Progressive Party, Ahdut HaAvoda, and the three Israeli Arab parties, the Democratic List for Israeli Arabs, Progress and Work, Agriculture and Development. The government had 16 ministers. It collapsed when Ben-Gurion resigned on 31 December 1957 over the leaking of information from ministerial meetings.

### Eighth government

Ben-Gurion formed the eighth government a week later on 7 January 1958 with the same coalition partners. The number of ministers remained the same. The eighth government collapsed when Ben-Gurion resigned again on 5 July 1959 after Labour Unity and Mapam had voted against the government on the issue of selling arms to West Germany and refused to leave the coalition. Elections for the fourth Knesset were called for 3 November 1959.