Twenty-three Groups Present Election States for Knesset Elections

Twenty-three election lists, a record number in Israel’s short parliamentary history, have been presented to the central election committee headed by Chief Justice Shimon Agranat for the Knesset elections scheduled to be held July 26. The first and second Knesset were contested by 21 party lists.

The Mapai list was headed by Moshe Sharett, David Ben Gurion and Joseph Sprinzak, while the General Zionist election list was headed by Peretz Bernstein. Israel Rokach, Shoshanah Persitz. Joseph Saphir and Joseph Serlin.

Two principal religious lists were entered, following the collapse of negotiations for a united religious front. One list, made up of Mizrachi and Hapoel Hamizrachi, is headed by Moshe Shapiro, Yosef Burg, Yitzhak Raphael, Zorach Warhaftig, Dr. Mordecai Nurock, Moshe Unna and A. Grinberg. The other list, which is composed of Agudah and Poale Agudah is led by Rabbi Yitzhak Meir Levine, Benjamin Mintz, Rabbi Shlomo Lorentz, Rabbi Zalman Kahana and I. Ben-Yacob.

The right-###ing Herut Party entered a list headed by Menachem Beigin Dr. Jochanan Bader and Benjamin Avniel. Lists were also entered by Mapam, Leachdut Avodah, Progressive Party, and the Communists. Smaller election lists were also submitted. They include.

Liberal list headed by Moshe Nussbacher; Israeli list, headed by Meir Pelled, Likud, a popular economic movement headed by the former general secretary of the small merchants and shop owners association, Ephraim Guzmann; Yemenite Association list headed by Zecharya Gluska; World Knesset Israel list, a religious group, headed by Itzhak Ashkneasi###a New Aliya Front list, whose chief candidate is Moshe Silbermann-Jerushalmi; the Adult Workers Association list, headed by Aron Shatai, and the General Zionist Sephardic list, whose principal candidate is Eliyahu Elyasshar.

ARABS SUBMIT FIVE LISTS; EFFORT FOR UNITED RELIGIOUS FRONT FAILS

Five Arab lists were also submitted to the election commission, all of them affiliated with and sponsored by Jewish parties. Three of them, the Agricultural and Development list, the Democratic list, and the Progress and Labor list, are Mapai affiliates. The General Zionists sponsored the Central Arabic list and the Progressive Party sponsored the Hamifneh list (not to be confused with the Lamifneh faction of the Hapoel Hamizrachi.)

Principal interest in the last minute rush to submit lists was fixed on the proposed religious united front. Such a front had been formed just two days before the deadline, but the Lamifneh faction of Hapoel Hamizrachi, headed by Dr. Burg and Mr. Unna had refused to enter the front with the Agudah and Poale Agudah. Faced with the certainty that Lamifneh would run on a separate ticket, the Hapoel Hamizrachi limited its affiliation to Mizrachi, while Agudah joined with Poale Agudah.

News of the collapse of the newly formed united religious front was received with great sorrow by many religious leaders here, some of whom openly wept when it became clear that the deadline would make any further negotiations for such a front impossible.