The Greens ( he, הַיְּרוּקִים, HaYerukim) is a minor

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

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

that emphasizes

environment protection Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment by individuals, organizations and governments. Its objectives are to conserve natural resources and the existing natural environment and, where possible, to repair da ...

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 ( he, פאר ויסנר; born 1957) is an Israeli politician who was deputy mayor of Tel Aviv and chair of the Israeli Green Party. Political career Visner strongly opposed a 2006 resolution by the United States Green Party calling ...

. Although the party was never represented in the

Knesset The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (wit ...

, 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 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 ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the 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 metropol ...

, where former Green candidate Yona Yahav was re-elected for a second mayoral term, the Greens won four seats, while in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

, where Green Party chair

was deputy mayor, the Greens won three seats. The Greens campaigned intensively for the 2009 Knesset elections. 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. 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.

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