Israel will hold a general election on April 9 after leaders moved to dissolve parliament, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.

"The leaders of the coalition decided unanimously to dissolve parliament and go to a new election in early April," the spokesman said, quoting from a joint statement issued by Netanyahu's right-wing political partners.

Netanyahu, now in his fourth term as Israel's prime minister, has been heading a coalition with 61 seats in the 120-member Knesset. The five-member coalition, led by Netanyahu's Likud party, has been in power since May 2015.

Speaking to reporters after the announcement, Netanyahu said he hoped for a similar right-wing coalition after the April elections.

Under Israeli law, new elections had to be held by November 2019. The governing coalition will remain in place until a new parliament is elected in April.

Promised land, enemy land: Israel 70 years after independence Long-held hope is victorious On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion, future first prime minister of Israel, declares the state's independence, outlining the Jewish story: "The people kept faith with (the land) throughout their dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom." It was the birth of an internationally recognized Jewish homeland.

Promised land, enemy land: Israel 70 years after independence The darkest hour While the controversial idea of a God-given land for Jews has biblical roots, the Holocaust was a close, powerful backdrop for the significance of Israel's founding. Nazi Germany murdered six million Jews across Europe, and those who survived the concentration camps endured expulsion and forced labor. The above photo shows survivors of the Auschwitz camp following liberation.

Promised land, enemy land: Israel 70 years after independence 'Nakba': Arabic for 'catastrophe' That is the word that Palestinians and their supporters use to mark Israel's independence. About 700,000 Arabs living in Palestine at the time fled as waves of Jewish immigrants arrived to settle in the new Jewish state. The birth of Israel was the start of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which remains unresolved 70 years later despite numerous attempts.

Promised land, enemy land: Israel 70 years after independence Life on a kibbutz These land collectives, known as kibbutzim in the plural, were established across Israel following independence. Many were run by secular or socialist Jews in an effort to realize their vision of society.

Promised land, enemy land: Israel 70 years after independence A state at war Tensions with its Arab neighbors erupted in the Six-Day War in June 1967. With a surprise attack, Israel is able to swiftly defeat Egypt, Jordan and Syria, bringing the Arab-populated areas of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights under Israeli control. Victory leads to occupation — and more tension and conflict.

Promised land, enemy land: Israel 70 years after independence Settlements on disputed territory Israel's settlement policy worsens the conflict with Palestinians. Due to development and expansion of Jewish areas on occupied Palestinian land, the Palestinian Authority accuses Israel of making a future Palestinian state untenable. Israel has largely ignored the international community's criticism of its settlement policy, arguing new construction is either legal or necessary for security.

Promised land, enemy land: Israel 70 years after independence Anger, hate and stones: The first intifada In winter 1987, Palestinians begin mass protests of Israel's ongoing occupation. Unrest spreads from Gaza to East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The uprising eventually wound down and led to the 1993 Oslo Accords — the first face-to-face agreement between the government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the representative body of the Palestinian people.

Promised land, enemy land: Israel 70 years after independence Peace at last? With former US President Bill Clinton as a mediator, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (left) and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat hold peace talks. The result, the Oslo I Accord, is each side's recognition of the other. The agreement leads many to hope that an end to the Israel-Palestine conflict is not far off, but peace initiatives suffer a major setback when Rabin is assassinated two years later.

Promised land, enemy land: Israel 70 years after independence A void to fill A right-wing Jewish fanatic shoots and kills Rabin on November 4, 1995, while he is leaving a peace rally in Tel Aviv. Rabin's assassination throws the spotlight on Israel's internal social strife. The divide is growing between centrist and extremist, secular and religious. The photo shows Israel's then-acting prime minister, Shimon Peres, next to the empty chair of his murdered colleague.

Promised land, enemy land: Israel 70 years after independence Addressing the unspeakable Nazi Germany's mass murder of Jews weighs on German-Israeli relations to this day. In February 2000, Germany's then-President Johannes Rau addresses the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in German. It is a tremendous emotional challenge for both sides, especially for Holocaust survivors and their descendants, but also a step towards closer relations after unforgettable crimes.

Promised land, enemy land: Israel 70 years after independence The Israeli wall In 2002, amid the violence and terror of the Second Intifada, Israel starts building a 107-kilometer-long (67-mile-long) barrier of barbed wire, concrete wall and guard towers between itself and Palestinian areas of the West Bank. It suppresses the violence but does not solve the larger political conflict. The wall grows in length over the years and is projected to reach around 700 kilometers.

Promised land, enemy land: Israel 70 years after independence A gesture to the dead Germany's current foreign minister, Heiko Maas, steps decisively into an ever closer German-Israeli relationship. His first trip abroad as the country's top diplomat is to Israel in March 2018. At the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum in Jerusalem, he lays a wreath in memory of Holocaust victims. Author: Kersten Knipp



Fight over military bill

A division over a military conscription bill that affects exemptions from compulsory service for ultra-Orthodox Jewish men appears to have triggered the decision to call the elections.

Ultra-Orthodox parties fear that military service will lead to secularism.

However, years of exemptions have fostered resentment among other Jewish Israelis.

Last week, Yair Lapid of the opposition Yesh Atid party announced he was withdrawing his support for the bill. As a result, Netanyahu convened a meeting of his political partners and they moved to dissolve parliament.

Netanyahu's coalition has had internal divisions for months. Avigdor Lieberman stepped down as defense minister in November over what he perceived to be a weak response to rocket attacks in Gaza.

Netanyahu first led Israel from 1996 to 1999 before recapturing the premiership in 2009. He could also soon face charges stemming from a corruption investigation.

The Likud party is expected to close ranks around Netanyahu in the coming election.

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dv/jm (AFP, AP, Reuters)

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