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Israel
Israel election: Netanyahu and rival Gantz
tied with 97% of vote counted – as it
happened
Polling suggests the race for prime minister will be tight, as
Benjamin Netanyahu runs against Benny Gantz

 Full story: Netanyahu appears on track for victory despite tied

result

Updated 3d ago
 Benjamin Netanyahu, his wife, Sara and Likud party members greet
supporters during Likud’s party as the country waits to hear election
results. Photograph: Amir Levy/Getty Images
Mattha Busby (now), Kate Lyons and Adam Gabbatt (earlier)

Wed 10 Apr 2019 11.53 BSTFirst published on Tue 9 Apr 2019 19.00 BST

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 3d agoClosing summary
 4d agoElection day - in pictures
 4d agoNetanyahu and Gantz tied at 35 seats with 95% of the vote
counted
 4d agoNetanyahu set to win most seats with 80% of the vote
counted – Knesset website
 4d ago‘A night of tremendous victory’ – Netanyahu’s speech
 4d ago'We are the ones who won,' Gantz gives speech to supporters
 4d agoVoters have "said no to peace and yes to the occupation" –
Palestinian official

3d ago11:53

Closing summary
We will now bring to a close our coverage of the Israeli election, with prime
minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly deep in talks with ultra-Orthodox
and right-wing parties to form a coalition. Thanks for reading.

 With 97% of votes counted, Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud is

marginally ahead of Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party. Though
 both parties appear set to win 35 seats each, Likud have 26.27% of
the vote so far, while Gantz’s centrists have 25.95%.

 This leaves both parties well short of being able to form a majority
government. However, Netanyahu appears best placed to form
a government since the right-wing and religious parties appear to
have won more seats than the Arab, centre and left parties.

 Potential kingmaker, the right-wing Yisrael Beytenu party leader

Avigdor Liberman has ruled out recommending Gantz as the
next prime minister. However, he stopped short of aligning
himself with Netanyahu at this stage. Liberman quit as defense
minister in November, criticising what he said was “the continued
capitulation to terrorism” and citing “disagreements regarding the
policy toward Hamas and the Gaza Strip”.

 Netanyahu’s office said he was deep in talks with ultra-Orthodox and

other right-wing parties to form a coalition early on Wednesday, the
Times of Israel reported

 Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurtz and Indian prime

minister Narendra Modi were the first world leaders to
congratulate Netanyahu, with Kurtz paying tribute to how the Israeli
prime minister “gained the trust of the people of Israel in record
numbers”.

 After the final three percent of votes are counted – which include
those from diplomats and soldiers – the president will ask one of
the party leaders to try to form a government. This is not
necessarily the party with the most votes, but the one most likely to
be able to win support of other parties to form a government.

 Earlier in the night both Netanyahu and Gantz claimed victory,

with Gantz saying: “We are the ones who won” and Netanyahu
declaring it was: “a night of tremendous victory”.

 If Netanyahu is able to secure a victory, this summer he will

become Israel’s longest-ever serving leader. Re-election would
also give him an important boost as he braces for the likelihood of
criminal charges in a series of corruption scandals and would confirm
Israel’s continued tilt to the right and further dim hopes of a
negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

FacebookTwitter
3d ago11:33
My colleague Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem has this explainer on
yesterday’s election:

Who has won the Israel election and what

happens next?
Read more
Updated at 11.33am BST
FacebookTwitter
3d ago11:33

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Make a contribution - The Guardian

3d ago11:23

The Indian prime minister Narendra Modi is the second world leader to
congratulate Netanyahu, in both English and Hebrew.

Chowkidar Narendra Modi

✔@narendramodi

My dear friend Bibi, Congratulations! You are a great friend of India, and I look
forward to continuing to work with you to take our bilateral partnership to new
heights. @netanyahu

62.7K
5:55 PM - Apr 10, 2019
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 15.7K people are talking about this

FacebookTwitter
3d ago11:15

The Times of Israel is reporting that voting results in several Israeli

settlements show more ballots were submitted than eligible voters, with the
Union of Right-Wing Parties profiting from the apparent irregularities.

 In the northern West Bank settlement of Peduel, voter turnout was

113% with 894 ballots cast and 789 residents who were eligible to
vote.

 In the southern West Bank settlement of Negohot, voter turnout was

143% with 125 ballots cast and 87 residents who were eligible to vote.

 In the ultra-Orthodox West Bank settlement of Modiin Illit, voter

turnout was 104% with 19,989 ballots cast and 19,103 residents who
were eligible to vote.

 In the northern West Bank settlement of Bruchin voter turnout was

167%, with 385 ballots cast and 230 residents who were eligible to
vote.

You can check the Knesset website with the results as they come in here,
broken down by locality.

FacebookTwitter
3d ago11:05

Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurtz is the first world leader to

congratulate Benjamin Netanyahu, although all votes have not yet been
counted.

Sebastian Kurz(@sebastiankurz)
I am looking forward to working with you in the future, for the benefit of the
people of Israel and the people of Austria.

April 10, 2019

FacebookTwitter
3d ago10:56

Likud Knesset member Miki Zohar has appeared to launch a campaign to

exonerate prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the allegations facing
him in three corruption cases, the Times of Israel reported.
“The people decided that the cases [against Netanyahu] aren’t criminal in
nature,” Zohar said in an interview with the Kan public broadcaster on
Wednesday morning.

“The public thinks that there is a line that the courts and law enforcement
should not cross — that’s the line the prime minister was on. You can’t
cross this line and get to the point where you’re arguing that a politician
speaking with the media committed a criminal act.”

In another interview with the Walla news site, Zohar urged attorney general
Avichai Mandelblit to “come to his senses” and drop the planned
indictments against the prime minister on charges of bribery, fraud and
breach of trust. Netanyahu denies all the allegations.

“We’re seeing the lie [the corruption allegations against Netanyahu] being
sustained only by law enforcement authorities,” Zohar said. “I hope the
attorney general comes to his senses and sees the public’s decision [on
election day] and what it thinks about Netanyahu.”

FacebookTwitter
3d ago10:37

An aide to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas says the outcome of the

election boosts the “extreme right-wing camp” in Israeli politics and raises
Palestinian fears over the annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank.

In the final stretch of the campaign, Netanyahu pledged to annex vast

swaths of the occupied West Bank and create further Israeli settlements, a
move that would erode remaining hopes for Palestinian statehood.

Over the weekend, plans for 3,600 new homes in the occupied territory
were advanced by the Israeli defence ministry which legalised an outpost by
agreeing to seize privately-owned Palestinian land in order to build a road
to the settlement, the Times of Israel reported.

“We will move to the next stage . . . I will impose sovereignty, but I will not
distinguish between settlement blocs and isolated settlements,” Netanyahu
told Channel 12 News on Saturday night. “From my perspective, any point
of settlement is Israeli, and we have responsibility, as the Israeli
government. I will not uproot anyone, and I will not transfer sovereignty to
the Palestinians.”

Abbas aide Ahmed Majdalani tells the Association Press that Palestinians
will seek the help of the international community to try to block any
annexation plans.
Prior to the election, the senior Palestinian official told AP: “The Palestinian
cause is totally absent in the Israeli elections, and when it comes, it comes
only in a negative context. This is worrisome, because it tells us that we are
going from bad to worse.”

FacebookTwitter
3d ago08:50

Benny Gantz, head of the centrist Blue and White alliance, has tweeted:

Good morning, fellas. Yes, Good morning! The reports tell their unfinished
story. While there are dark skies, but there are no two things:

1) There is nothing final about them, because there may be electoral

movements and we may be able to develop such political moves or others.

2) It is certainly not to conceal the sun of Hope.

That we gave to the people and society in Israel. They, our constituents,
asked for hope and we gave it to them. They wanted another way and we
took it. So, comrades, ‘your enemies have fallen into view and his
godbroken into thy heart’.

Therefore, we do not retreat from our public duty to represent more than
one million citizens who have asked us something else. An unprecedented
historical achievement in the EMUs. We have something to be proud of
and become.

Benny Gantz, leader of the Israeli Blue and White Party speaks to
supporters on election night in Tel Aviv, Israel, 10 April 2019. Photograph:
UPI/Barcroft Images
Updated at 8.51am BST
FacebookTwitter
3d ago08:27
A Palestine Liberation Organization representative says Israelis have
chosen racism and permanent conflict by voting for candidates that are
“unequivocally committed” to a “status quo of oppression”.

Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian official, said:

Israeli voters have chosen their representatives. Regrettably, Israelis

overwhelmingly voted for candidates that are unequivocally committed to
entrenching the status quo of oppression, occupation, annexation and
dispossession in Palestine and escalating the assault on Palestinian
national and human rights. They have chosen an overwhelmingly
rightwing, Xenophobic and anti-Palestinian parliament to represent
them. Israelis chose to entrench and expand apartheid.

The extremist and militaristic agenda, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, has

been emboldened by the Trump administration’s reckless policies and
blind support. This cynical alliance against Palestinian rights and the
standing of the rules-based international order remains unchallenged by
the rest of the international community, thereby reinforcing the rightist
and populist agendas.

The Palestinian people will overcome this dark and highly dangerous
chapter and remain deeply rooted in our homeland. We are a resilient
people and we will persist and forge alliances with like-minded and
responsible international actors to create a counterbalance to the
dangerous and reckless agenda and its adherence among other racist and
fundamentalist governments, particularly in Israel.

FacebookTwitter
3d ago08:16

This is Mattha Busby taking over from Kate Lyons.

Haaretz are reporting that Benny Gantz has written to party members to
say although its “looking bleak”, the possibility of “electoral shifts” remains.

“It’s looking bleak but the results are not yet final. It’s possible that there
will be electoral shifts, and that we can make certain political moves,” he
wrote, according to the paper. “They wanted a different way and we showed
it to them. We will not back down from our public duty to represent over a
million people who asked us for something different. It’s an unprecedented
historical victory. We should be proud.”

However, the Times of Israel says the head of the secular right-wing
nationalist party Yisrael Beytenu, Avigdor Liberman, has confirmed to Ynet
news site that it will either support prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, or
remain in opposition.

“Either we join Netanyahu’s government or we remain in the opposition, we

are also in the opposition, we understand the balance of power,” Liberman
said.

Lieberman, whose party appears to have won five seats, had previously
backed Gantz in a row over the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict earlier this year,
according to Ynet.

Updated at 8.22am BST

FacebookTwitter
3d ago07:11

Our correspondent, Oliver Holmes, has this wrap of the night’s results.

Israeli election: Netanyahu appears on track for

victory despite tied result
Read more
FacebookTwitter
3d ago07:08

It appears that Arab parties have lost three seats in the Knesset in this
election, after calls within the Arab community, which makes up almost a
fifth of Israel’s population, to boycott the election.

Likud was censured on Tuesday for sending monitors with body-cameras to

polling stations with Arab constituents, which Arab politicians condemned
as voter intimidation. A Likud party official defended the move, saying the
cameras were deployed to ensure there would be no vote rigging.

FacebookTwitter
3d ago06:47
 Retired general Benny Gantz (L) and Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu(R) look set to win one another’s home seats. Photograph: Jack
Guez/AFP/Getty Images

The Times of Israel has reported that the two main contenders for prime
minister are on track to win each other’s home seats.

Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party is trailing behind Benjamin

Netanyahu’s Likund party in Gantz’s working class hometown of Rosh
Ha’ayin, though there is only about 300 votes in it.

Whereas in Caesarea, where Netanyahu lived before becoming prime

minister, Blue and White is ahead of Likud 52.6% to 24%.

FacebookTwitter
3d ago06:28

With the election results so close, the Associated Press reports that the
country now faces what could be weeks of political negotiations over the
composition of a ruling coalition.

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