This is the first time Israel will have held four elections within a two-year period (and there’s absolutely no guarantee we won’t be facing a fifth within a very short time).

Israel’s democracy is a vibrant work in process, and this isn’t the only historic first the country has experienced.

Join us for a tour of 20 other election firsts in Israel.

  1. In 1949, signs exhorting citizens to “Go and Vote!” were posted to notify building residents about the location of their polling stations for the first elections to take place in the newly established State of Israel.
“Go and vote!” exhorts a 1949 poster notifying residents of the location of their polling station in Israel’s first elections, the National Library of Israel collections
  1. That same year was the first in which a women’s party, formed by the Women’s Zionist Organization (WIZO),took part. Although only receiving enough votes to earn it a single seat in the first Knesset, WIZO did sound the call for equal rights.
A women’s party organized by the Women’s Zionist Organization won a seat in the 1949 elections, the National Library of Israel collections
  1. The elections for the second Knesset, in 1951, were in fact the first Knesset elections, as the 1949 elections were actually for a National Assembly.
The massive waves of immigration, symbolized by welcoming open gates, would be a deciding force in the 1951 elections, the National Library of Israel collections

New immigrants were a deciding force, as large numbers of immigrants had come to Israel in mass waves and were eligible to vote. The “Ingathering of the Exiles” was celebrated in this poster for Hapoel HaMizrachi- Mizrachi Workers party (one of the predecessors of the National Religious Party).

This article was originally published on the Israel21c website, read the rest of it here.