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1973 Israeli legislative election
	All 120 seats in the Knesset; 61 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	78.58% ( 3.08pp)
Golda Meir; Alignment	Golda Meir; Alignment

Legislative elections were held in Israel on 31 December 1973. Voter turnout was 79%.^[1] The election was postponed for two months because of the Yom Kippur War.

Parliament factions

The table below lists the parliamentary factions represented in the 7th Knesset.

Name		Ideology	Symbol	Leader	1969 result		Seats at 1972 dissolution
Name		Ideology	Symbol	Leader	Votes (%)	Seats	Seats at 1972 dissolution
	Alignment	Social Democracy Labor Zionism	אמת‎	Golda Meir	46.2%	56 / 120	56 / 120
	Gahal	National liberalism	חל‎	Menachem Begin	21.7%	26 / 120	26 / 120
	Mafdal	Religious Zionism	ב‎	Yosef Burg	9.7%	12 / 120	12 / 120
	Agudat Yisrael	Religious conservatism	ג‎	Yehuda Meir Abramowicz	3.2%	4 / 120	4 / 120
	Independent Liberals	Liberalism	לע‎	Moshe Kol	3.2%	4 / 120	4 / 120
	National List	Social liberalism	עמ‎	Yigal Hurvitz	3.1%	4 / 120	4 / 120
	Rakah	Communism Socialism	ו‎	Meir Vilner	2.8%	3 / 120	3 / 120
	Progress and Development	Arab satellite list	רא‎	Seif el-Din el-Zoubi	2.1%	2 / 120	2 / 120
	Poalei Agudat Yisrael	Religious conservatism	ד‎	Kalman Kahana	1.9%	2 / 120	2 / 120
	Arab List for Bedouin and Villagers	Arab satellite list	עא‎	Hamad Abu Rabia	1.4%	2 / 120	2 / 120
	Meri	Socialism	ש‎	Uri Avnery	1.2%	2 / 120	2 / 120
	Free Centre	Liberalism	ט‎	Shmuel Tamir	1.2%	2 / 120	2 / 120
	Maki	Communism	ק‎	Moshe Sneh	1.1%	1 / 120	1 / 120

Results


Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Alignment	621,183	39.65	51	−5
	Likud	473,309	30.21	39	+7
	National Religious Party	130,349	8.32	10	−2
	Religious Torah Front	60,012	3.83	5	−1
	Independent Liberals	56,560	3.61	4	0
	Rakah	53,353	3.41	4	+1
	Ratz	35,023	2.24	3	New
	Progress and Development	22,604	1.44	2	0
	Moked	22,147	1.41	1	0
	Arab List for Bedouin and Villagers	16,408	1.05	1	New
	Black Panthers	13,332	0.85	0	New
	The League List	12,811	0.82	0	New
	Meri	10,469	0.67	0	−1
	Movement for Social Equality	10,202	0.65	0	New
	Cooperation and Brotherhood	9,949	0.63	0	−2
	Blue White Panthers	5,945	0.38	0	New
	Brotherhood Movement	4,433	0.28	0	New
	Israeli Arab List	3,269	0.21	0	New
	Yemenite List	3,195	0.20	0	New
	Socialist Revolution List	1,201	0.08	0	New
	Popular Movement	1,101	0.07	0	New
Total		1,566,855	100.00	120	0

Valid votes		1,566,855	97.86
Invalid/blank votes		34,243	2.14
Total votes		1,601,098	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		2,037,478	78.58
Source: IDI, Nohlen et al.

Aftermath

Golda Meir of the Alignment formed the sixteenth government on 10 March 1974, including the National Religious Party and the Independent Liberals in her coalition, with 22 ministers. Meir resigned on 11 April 1974 after the Agranat Commission had published its interim report on the Yom Kippur War.

The Alignment's Yitzhak Rabin formed the seventeenth government on 3 June 1974, including Ratz, the Independent Liberals, Progress and Development and the Arab List for Bedouins and Villagers. The new government had 19 ministers. The National Religious Party joined the coalition on 30 October and Ratz left on the 6 November, by which time there were 21 ministers.

The government resigned on 22 December 1976, after ministers of the National Religious Party were sacked because the party had abstained from voting on a motion of no confidence, which had been brought by Agudat Yisrael over a breach of the Sabbath on an Israeli Air Force base.

During the Knesset term there were several defections from parties; In 1975 Aryeh Eliav left the Alignment and merged with Ratz to form Ya'ad - Civil Rights Movement. The new party broke up the following year when Eliav and Marcia Freedman left to set up the Independent Socialist Faction, whilst Shulamit Aloni and Boaz Moav returned to Ratz. In 1975 Benjamin Halevi left Likud to sit as an independent, whilst Shmuel Tamir and Akiva Nof left Likud to form the Free Centre the following year.^[2] In 1977 Hillel Seidel defected from the Independent Liberals to Likud, whilst Mordechai Ben-Porat broke away from the Alignment and sat as an independent.^[2]

In February 1974 Progress and Development and the Arab List for Bedouins and Villagers merged into the Alignment (with which they were already associated), but both later broke away and then formed the United Arab List in 1977. In the build-up to the 1977 elections the Religious Torah Front broke up into Agudat Yisrael (three seats) and Poalei Agudat Yisrael in March 1977. On 10 April Mapam broke away from the Alignment, but rejoined it two days later.^[2]