Jewish-majority self-rule existed in Eretz Yisrael during the First and Second Jewish Commonwealths, 1020 to 586 B.C.E. and 538 B.C.E. to 70 C.E., respectively. Then living for centuries as minorities throughout Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere in the world, Jews developed systems for self-governance and evolved multiple, even if small, organizations to provide for communal needs and survive against religious zealots, dictators, kings, caliphs, dukes, local rulers and episodic waves of antisemitism. In their Diaspora, Jewish communities anointed local secular and religious leaders to make decisions about staying true to Jewish beliefs while speaking for the community to those who held power.
Jews taxed and educated themselves, practicing differing degrees of autonomy, well before they controlled a territory. Regardless of their differing destinations, Jews who migrated in the 18th and 19th centuries used well-honed practices and created institutions to serve communal needs. By emerging from a vast number of social, geographic and ideological backgrounds, Jews who wanted to try modern political Zionism cleaved together, though often rancorously, in the World Zionist Organization in 1897. It became an umbrella movement of diverse outlooks where political debate was constant but, more often than not, inclusive.
In Palestine, Zionists established institutions to link people to the land and support land settlement. The Jewish National Fund was established in 1901, along with the Anglo-Palestine Bank. In 1907, the WZO opened a tiny office in Jaffa. The Jewish Agency was established in 1921 to officially interact with the British Mandatory government on behalf of the growing Jewish community, while the Arabs of Palestine chose not to create an Arab agency. Zionists elected a self-governing assembly in April 1920, with 22,000 out of 28,000 eligible voters casting ballots. Though the assembly did not have much power, the Jewish population had universal suffrage, but some religious parties split with those who wanted to give women voting rights. Eventually parties were represented proportionately in the WZO according to votes received. Four such elections were held before the establishment of the state in 1948. Zionists created other organizations and institutions inside and outside the Jewish Agency and the WZO to serve multiple communal purposes for education, health care, self-defense, finance, marketing, immigration, land purchasing and more.
Even before the end of its War of Independence, Israel held its first election as a parliamentary democracy. The 120-member Knesset, Israel’s parliament, remains the supreme political institution of the state. Voters cast ballots for political parties and not for individuals, with allocations in the parliament based upon the percentages the parties receive. Elections must take place at least once every four years, though they can be and frequently are held more often. No single party has ever won a majority of parliamentary seats. Every Israeli government has been formed from a coalition of several parties, necessitating the trading of votes for Cabinet positions and budgetary allocations. The prime minister, usually from the political party that won the most seats, forms the Cabinet. The ruling coalition must pass a budget annually, or the government is dissolved, forcing a new election. The president of the state is essentially a ceremonial position, while the Supreme Court is the highest judicial authority in the land. Any Israeli citizen can appeal to the Supreme Court.
Though Israel’s Declaration of Independence explicitly called for a constitution, Israel was unable to enact one. Instead, the Knesset has passed 14 Basic Laws to serve the constitutional purpose of providing the structure for the government and citizen obligations. In 77 years, Israel has had 14 prime ministers and close to 900 different parliamentary members. The Israeli army is a citizen force, falling under the authority of the prime minister and the Cabinet. Israel has a free press, albeit with some government restrictions on the release of news related to national security, and a relatively high rate of citizen participation in national elections. Since 1948, Israel’s average turnout for national elections has been 75%, compared with 70% in the United Kingdom and Canada, 60% in India, and 56% in the United States.
