The First Knesset in session, February 1949. File photo by Moshe Marlin Levin, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
1949Society
Israel's first national election sends 120 representatives to a new parliament.
On 25 January 1949, voters choose a Constituent Assembly that becomes the First Knesset.
The story in numbers.
120
members of the new assembly
SourceThe Knesset
21
lists compete for votes
11
women win seats
SourceJewish Virtual Library
Here is how it happened.
Mid-November 1948
The election ordinance makes the whole country one voting district.
Each voter casts one ballot for a list of candidates. The assembly is set at 120 members, a number taken from the Great Assembly of ancient times.
SourceThe Knesset
Voters in line in Nazareth on election day, 1949. File photo, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
25 January 1949
Israel votes three months later than planned.
The fighting of the War of Independence had delayed the vote from October 1948. 21 lists compete, and 12 of them win seats.
January 1949
An Arab list and a women's list both win seats.
The Democratic List of Nazareth, an Arab minority list, wins 2 seats. The WIZO women's list wins 1.
The opening session of the Constituent Assembly in Jerusalem, February 1949. File photo by Hugo Mendelson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
14 February 1949
The assembly meets in Jerusalem and names itself the Knesset.
It sits for the first time in the National Institutions Building. Two days later it passes the Transition Law, which calls the legislature the Knesset.
SourceThe Knesset
1 of 4
The 120 seats go to 12 of the 21 lists that ran.
seats
Source:Israel Democracy Institute
More pictures from this story.
David Ben-Gurion votes in the 1949 election. File photo by Hugo Mendelson, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
David Ben-Gurion votes in the 1949 election
Here is why it matters.
The vote created the parliament that still sits today, with the same 120 seats. Arab citizens and women were among the people elected.
Three more milestones to read next.
David Ben-Gurion reading the Declaration of Independence, 14 May 1948. File photo by Rudi Weissenstein, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
1948
The Declaration of Independence promises equal rights to all.
Read the story
Golda Meir in 1973. File photo by Marion S. Trikosko, edited by Talmoryair, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
1969
Golda Meir becomes Israel's first woman Prime Minister.
Read the story
Salim Joubran. File photo by רדיומן, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
2004
Salim Joubran becomes Israel's first Arab justice with a permanent Supreme Court seat.
Read the story
Where each fact was read.
Sources read on 1 November 2026.