Jerusalem,   Israel's former Labor chairman and opposition leader Isaac Herzog was chosen by the Parliament on Wednesday as the next Israeli President, a largely ceremonial position.

Speaker of the Knesset (Parliament) Yariv Levin announced in a broadcast statement that Herzog was elected after winning votes of 87 lawmakers, while his rival Miriam Peretz, a conservative educator and a settler, won the votes of 26 lawmakers, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Herzog, 60, is the chairman of the Jewish Agency, a major Jewish nonprofit organisation, and the son of Israel's sixth President Chaim Herzog.