The last remaining parties submitted their Knesset lists throughout Tuesday, ahead of the final deadline for all parties to submit their slates before the October elections.
With the lists submitted, parties can no longer form new alliances or mergers, bringing an end to months of speculation and negotiations over which factions would join forces ahead of the election.
Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party submitted its list without merging with any other party, and will be running in the elections despite months of polling showing it unable to pass the required electoral threshold. Numerous members of Blue and White had left in recent months as Gantz continued to lose public support.
Second on the list after Gantz is current Blue and White MK Pnina Tameno-Shete, third is former Beit Shemesh mayor Aliza Bloch, fourth is reservist commander Roee Konkol, fifth is reservist activist Rotem Avidar Tzalik; and sixth is current Blue and White MK Alon Schuster.
The party said the list will include 50% women among its top 10 candidates, in positions 2, 3, 5, 8 and 10. It will also include two residents of northern Israel, three residents of the Gaza border communities, two kibbutz residents, a moshav resident and a member of the Druze community.
Parties that waited until close to the deadline to submit their lists included Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party (RZP), which merged with the Zehut party led by Moshe Feiglin.
RZP-Zehut announced a list with Smotrich first, Feiglin second, Settlement and National Missions Minister Orit Strock third, and MK Simcha Rothman fourth, with the party polling on the edge of the threshold and aiming to enter with the minimum of four seats.
The merger also left out of realistic spots different RZP veterans who served as MKs in the last Knesset, such as MK Zvi Sukkot (7th place) or MK Ohad Tal (12th place).
Shas adds IDF reservist to list with major changes
Shas submitted and released its candidate list on Tuesday following days of internal debate over major changes to its parliamentary lineup.
Ultimately, party leader Arye Deri and the Council of Torah Sages opted for a smaller-scale update. Most of the parliamentary core remains intact, though Yinon Azoulay moved to second place, and two new candidates have joined the slate.
The most notable newcomer is Lt.-Col. (Res.) Dror Amos, head of the Haifa Religious Services Board, who was placed directly in the sixth spot. Senior lawmakers Yoav Ben-Tzur and Moshe Abutbul, both rumored to be facing dismissal in recent days, secured viable positions on the ticket.
Amos’s placement is the standout addition to the new slate. He served in the IDF for 25 years and retired from full-time service as a lieutenant colonel.
Over the years, he established Chesed Chaim V’Emet, an organization assisting bereaved families with religious funeral customs. Following the October 7 massacre, he founded the “Kaddish for Every Holy Soul” initiative, pairing volunteers with the families of victims and fallen soldiers to ensure memorial prayers were recited in their honor.
Amos emerged as Shas searched for a high-profile candidate with a military background. Yossi Levi, CEO of the ultra-Orthodox military unit Netzach Yehuda, was also considered, but Amos ultimately became the top choice.
Amos’s high position reflects the importance Shas places on his r The sixth spot is virtually guaranteed, giving the party a religious candidate with decades of military service behind him.
Party strategists hope his background will appeal to traditionalist and military-serving voters – demographics that have long been crucial to the party’s base. The timing is equally strategic: with military conscription for the ultra-Orthodox set to dominate the upcoming election campaign, Shas can now highlight a veteran reserve officer high on its ballot.
A major shake-up also occurred at the top of the ticket. Yinon Azoulay, who ranked seventh in the 2022 elections, was promoted to second place, directly behind Deri. He is followed by Michael Malkieli in third, Yoav Ben-Tzur in fourth, and Chaim Biton in fifth.
Azoulay’s leap to second place positions him as the party’s second-in-command behind Deri. The shift became possible after the departures of Ya’akov Margi, who held second place on the previous ticket, and Moshe Arbel, who held sixth.
The candidate rankings continued to shift in the final hours of drafting. An initial version submitted for rabbinical review placed Yonatan Mishraki seventh, Yossef Taieb eighth, Uriel Buso ninth, and Abutbul tenth.
In the final version, Abutbul moved up to seventh, Buso to eighth, Taieb to ninth, and Mishraki down to tenth. These last-minute adjustments show that even after the candidate pool was finalized, the internal fight over ticket placement remained intense.
Haredi Public Party announces list with first woman to be in an ultra-Orthodox party
The new ultra-Orthodox party, Haredi Public, which seeks to offer an alternative to the two haredi parties in the Knesset – Shas and United Torah Judaism – also submitted its list.
Haredi Public party chairman Moti Leitner, Asher Freddy, Dr. Nechumi Yaffe, and Ziva Glantz will hold the top four slots of their list.
The party positions itself as an alternative for members of the ultra-Orthodox community, who often feel that representatives in the existing political realm do not reflect the socioeconomic and legal needs of average families.
Leitner, who previously served as deputy mayor of Beit Shemesh, said in a statement released by the party: “Behind every name on this list stand tens of thousands of Charedim who, for years, have been dismissed, ignored, and pushed aside by an old and disconnected leadership… Today, for the first time, there is an alternative.”
Among the parties that submitted their lists the day ahead of the deadline on Monday were Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar, Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad, Yair Golan’s The Democrats, Yoaz Hendel’s The Reservists party, and Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am.
Anna Barsky and Jonah Davidov contributed to this report.
