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55 Parties Receive Nomination Forms to Run in Upcoming Israel Elections

Head of the Likud party Benjamin Netanyahu greets his supporters during an election campaign in Jerusalem on Sunday, September 11, 2022. (EPA)
Head of the Likud party Benjamin Netanyahu greets his supporters during an election campaign in Jerusalem on Sunday, September 11, 2022. (EPA)
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55 Parties Receive Nomination Forms to Run in Upcoming Israel Elections

Head of the Likud party Benjamin Netanyahu greets his supporters during an election campaign in Jerusalem on Sunday, September 11, 2022. (EPA)
Head of the Likud party Benjamin Netanyahu greets his supporters during an election campaign in Jerusalem on Sunday, September 11, 2022. (EPA)

Israel heads to the polls for the fifth time in under four years and is scheduled to hold its 25th Knesset (Israel's parliament) elections on Nov.1.

The process to submit candidate lists to the Central Election Committee started on Wednesday morning, as 55 parties have received their nomination forms so far.

Registration for parties seeking to run in the upcoming elections will end on Thursday at 10 pm.

Not all of the parties who requested the forms shall run in the upcoming elections.

In the last elections, 39 lists competed, but only 13 lists passed the electoral threshold (3.25% of the vote).

Former MK Eli Avidar’s Israel Free and Democratic party was the first to submit its list.

Avidar, who is known to be of Egyptian origin and speaks Arabic fluently, was until recently a member of Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party before rebelling against his former faction and the outgoing coalition several times and ultimately forming his own faction.

He sought to pass a law to prevent indicted politicians from becoming prime minister and accused Bennet of withholding the law citing fears from Netanyahu and his camp, and said that failure to enact this law would overthrow the government and return Netanyahu to power.

Hadar Muchtar, who chairs the Fiery Youth party, was the second to submit her list. The party is running on a platform of combating the surging cost of living and corruption. It also advocates greater public involvement in the political process by holding referendums on a number of issues.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s Blue and White Party applied next, followed by Lieberman’s party, Betzalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right religious Zionism party, and former Israeli Ministry of Finance accountant general Yaron Zelekha’s New Economic Party.

Most politicians postpone submitting their lists until the last moments, especially parties with disagreements, such as Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party and the Joint List coalition of Arab factions and others.

The three Israeli factions currently within the Joint List agreed to run together again on Wednesday.

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Macron Visits Cyclone-devastated Mayotte as Residents Plead for Water, Food

France's president Emmanuel Macron embraces a woman as he speaks with local residents during his visit at the kavani district in Mamoudzou, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP)
France's president Emmanuel Macron embraces a woman as he speaks with local residents during his visit at the kavani district in Mamoudzou, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP)
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Macron Visits Cyclone-devastated Mayotte as Residents Plead for Water, Food

France's president Emmanuel Macron embraces a woman as he speaks with local residents during his visit at the kavani district in Mamoudzou, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP)
France's president Emmanuel Macron embraces a woman as he speaks with local residents during his visit at the kavani district in Mamoudzou, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP)

French President Emmanuel Macron arrived Thursday in the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte to survey Cyclone Chido’s destruction and was immediately confronted with a first-hand account of devastation across the French territory.
“Mayotte is demolished,” Assane Haloi, a security agent, told Macron after he stepped off the plane.
Macron had been moving along in a line of people greeting him when Haloi grasped his hand and spoke for a minute about the harrowing conditions the islands faced without bare essentials since Saturday when the strongest cyclone in nearly a century ripped through the French territory off the coast of Africa, The Associated Press reported.
“We are without water, without electricity, there is nowhere to go because everything is demolished,” she said. “We can’t even shelter, we are all wet with our children covering ourselves with whatever we have so that we can sleep.”
At least 31 people have died and more than 1,500 people were injured, more than 200 critically, French authorities said. But it’s feared hundreds or even thousands of people have died.
Macron arrived shortly after The Associated Press and other journalists from outside were able to reach Mayotte to provide accounts from survivors of the horror over the weekend when winds howled above 220 kph (136 mph) and peeled the roofs and walls from homes that collapsed around the people sheltering inside.
In the shantytown Kaweni on the outskirts of the capital Mamoudzou, a swath of hillside homes was reduced to scraps of corrugated metal, plastic, piles of bedding and clothing, and pieces of timber marking the frame where homes once stood.
“Those of us who are here are still in shock, but God let us live,” Nassirou Hamidouni said as he dug in the rubble of his former home. “We are sad. We can’t sleep because of all the houses that have been destroyed.”
Macron took a helicopter tour of the damage and then met with patients and staff at a hospital, who described having to work around the clock.
A woman who works in the psychological unit became emotional as she described staff becoming exhausted and unable to care for patients.
“Help the hospital staff, help the hospital,” the woman, whose name was not known, pleaded. “Everyone from top to bottom is wiped out.”
Macron, who was wearing a traditional red, black and gold Mayotte scarf over his white dress shirt and tie, put his hand on her shoulder as she wiped away tears.
He sought to reassure people that tons of food, medical aid and additional rescuers arrived with him and more help was on its way in the form of water and a field hospital to be set up Friday. A navy ship brought 180 tons of aid and equipment, the French military said.
But the visit took a testy turn when Macron was criticized for being out of touch about what was happening on the ground by a man who said they had gone six days in Ouangani without water or a visit from rescue services.
The president said it took the military four days to clear the roads and get a plan in place to deliver aid.
"If you want to continue shouting to get airtime,” Macron said as he was cut off, by the man saying he didn't intend to shout. “If you are interested in my response, if not I will walk away.”