When the gavel sounds on June 7 to convene the 15th Knesset, a record 15 political parties will be represented, promising a new season of raucous debate in the always contentious legislature.
Breaking another record, 15 women will be sworn in. Female representation in the 120-member Knesset will rise by more than 50 percent from the outgoing legislature, which had nine.
The previous record was set in 1955, when there were 12 female Knesset members.
The new Knesset will also have dozens of new faces, including:
*Dalia Rabin-Pelossof, daughter of slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. In her first venture into politics, she ran as a member of the Center Party, which is likely to be part of the government of Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak. Her mother, Leah Rabin, stated last week that she would make a good education minister.
*Husnia Jabara, a member of the far-left Meretz Party who will serve as Israel’s first female Arab legislator. She plans to focus on social, economic and cultural issues affecting Jewish and Arab Israelis alike. Forty percent of Meretz’s 10 representatives in the incoming Knesset are women, more than any other party.
*Uri Savir, a member of the Center Party who served as director general of the Foreign Ministry in the Rabin government. He was a member of the Israeli negotiating team that met secretly in 1993 with PLO representatives in Norway to hammer out what later became known as the Oslo accords.
*Ahmed Tibi, the former adviser on Israeli affairs to Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat. He resigned the advisory role after his Knesset candidacy sparked controversy because of his ties to Arafat. He was elected along with Azmi Bishara, the head of the National Democratic Alliance/Balad. Until his 11th-hour withdrawal, Bishara was the first Israeli Arab to run for prime minister.
*Rabbi Michael Melchior, the Danish-born former chief rabbi of Norway. A religious moderate, he ran as part of the Labor-One Israel bloc headed by Barak. He favors land for peace agreements with Israel’s Arab neighbors and wants to end military deferments for fervently religious yeshiva students.
*Avigdor “Yvette” Lieberman, head of the Israel, Our Home Party representing Russian immigrants. A former aide to outgoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he is the target of an investigation by police officials, who recommended shortly before last week’s election that he be charged with slander for his attacks on the judicial system.
*Yosef “Tommy” Lapid, head of the revitalized Shinui Party, which scored six Knesset seats with its platform calling for the exclusion of all fervently religious parties from the next government. A former tough-talking political commentator on television talk shows, he has been described as Israel’s Archie Bunker for his strong conservative views.
*Danny Naveh, a member of the Likud Party who served as Netanyahu’s Cabinet secretary until new elections were called last December. He also served as spokesman for then-Defense Minister Moshe Arens during the government of Yitzhak Shamir.
In last week’s elections, 16 parties failed to get enough votes for Knesset representation. Those included the Casino Party, which sought to legalize gambling in Israel, and the Green Leaf Party, which called for the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
The Pnina Rosenblum Party, named for the cosmetics magnate who headed it, looked likely to get two seats according to preliminary voting results, but was shut out of the Knesset when final tallies were issued.
In addition, two parties in the outgoing Knesset failed to cross the threshold of votes needed for inclusion in the new legislature. One was the Third Way, which objected to any Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights. The other was Tsomet, the right-wing party that ran as part of a Likud coalition in the 1996 elections, but ran on its own this time.