The Greens () is a minor

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

that emphasizes

environment protection Environmental protection, or environment protection, refers to the taking of measures to protecting the natural environment, prevent pollution and maintain ecological balance. Action may be taken by individuals, advocacy groups and governments. ...

and

quality of life Quality of life (QOL) is defined by the World Health Organization as "an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards ...

. It was founded and formerly headed by

Pe'er Visner Pe'er Visner (; born 1957) is an Israeli politician who was deputy mayor of Tel Aviv and chair of the The Greens (Israel), Israeli Green Party. Political career Visner strongly opposed a 2006 resolution by the Green Party (United States), United ...

. Although the party was never represented in the

Knesset The Knesset ( , ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Israel. The Knesset passes all laws, elects the President of Israel, president and Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister, approves the Cabinet of Israel, cabinet, and supe ...

, it holds seats in many municipalities across Israel.

History

The Greens were established in 1997. In the 1999 Knesset elections the party received 0.4% of the vote, failing to win a seat. They received the same share of the vote in the 2003 elections. In the

2006 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2006. * Elections in 2006 * Electoral calendar 2006 * 2006 Acehnese regional election * 2006 American Samoan legislative election * 2006 Bahraini parliamentary election * 2006 Costa Rican presidential e ...

, the party received 47,595 votes (1.52%). However, it was not enough to pass the 2% threshold, and they were ultimately the largest party not to obtain seats in the Knesset ( Balad, with 72,066 votes, was the smallest party to obtain seats). Had the electoral threshold not been raised from 1.5% in 2003, they would have won seats. Substantial gains in the 2008 municipal elections saw the Greens win over 50 seats across 22 municipalities. In

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

, where former Green candidate

Yona Yahav Yona Yahav (; born 19 June 1944) is an Israeli lawyer and politician currently serving as the mayor of Haifa since 2024. Yahav previously served as Mayor from 2003 and, 2018, when he lost re-election to Einat Kalisch-Rotem. In 2024, Yahav was r ...

was re-elected for a second mayoral term, the Greens won four seats, while in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

, where Green Party chair

was deputy mayor, the Greens won three seats. The Greens campaigned intensively for the

2009 Knesset elections 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Hindu–Arabic digit Circa 300 BC, as part of the Brahmi numerals, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bot ...

. Some polls by a number of national newspapers had predicted that the party could win around 2–3 seats, putting Greens in the

for the first time. However, a rival green party, the

Green Movement Green politics, or ecopolitics, is a political ideology that aims to foster an ecologically sustainable society often, but not always, rooted in environmentalism, nonviolence, social justice and grassroots democracy. Wall 2010. p. 12-13. It ...

was established in 2008, running in alliance with

Meimad Meimad (, an acronym for ''Medina Yehudit, Medina Demokratit'' (), lit., ''Jewish State, Democratic State'') is a moderate to left-wing religious Zionist political party in Israel. Founded in 1999, it is based on the ideology of the Meimad movem ...

. The Greens received only 0.4% of the vote, again failing to pass the electoral threshold, whilst the Green Movement and Meimad received 0.8% of the vote. In the 2013 elections the party's vote share dropped to 0.2%, and again to 0.07% in the

2015 elections Africa * 2015 Beninese parliamentary election 26 April 2015 * 2015 Burkinabé general election 29 November 2015 * 2015 Burundian legislative election 29 June 2015 * 2015 Burundian presidential election 21 July 2015 * 2015-16 Central African gene ...

Election results

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greens Green political parties in Israel Political parties established in 1997 1997 establishments in Israel Political parties in Israel