The (
Political Party in
Israel . It is a
Social Democratic and
Zionist party, a member of the
Socialist International and an observer member of the
Party Of European Socialists .
The following are the names that the Israeli Labor party has used:
- "'' Pō`aléy Tsiyyōn ''" - פועלי ציון ,"Zion's Workers".
- ''Mapai'' (MaPĀY) - מפא"י : "The Party of the Workers of the Land of Israel". (1930-1968)
- '' and Mapam parties).
- ''Ha-`Avōdāh'' ( Avoda ) - העבודה, lit "Labor".
- ''Yisra'el Ahat'' - ישראל אחת "One Israel" with Gesher and Meymad (1999-2001).
(''Mifleget Poalei Eretz Israel'' — "Land of Israel Worker's Party") was a
Labor Zionist party founded in the
1930s as the right wing (or more moderate) faction of the
Zionist Socialist Russian party
Poale Zion . In the early
1920 s the
Labor Zionist movement founded the
Histadrut ("General Hebrew
Workers' Union ") which dominated the Hebrew settlement economy and infrastructure, later making Mapai the dominant political faction in the Zionist politics. It is also responsible for the founding of
Hashomer and
Haganah , the first two armed Jewish groups who secured the people and property of new and emerging Jewish communities.
By the early 1930s, the workers' leader
David Ben-Gurion rose to power and led Mapai for almost two decades before he retired to
Sde Boker in order to develop the
Negev desert. Under Ben-Gurion's leadership Mapai became the leading party in the Hebrew parliament and Ben-Gurion led the Hebrew settlement in its struggle for independence. Ben-Gurion
Declared Israel's Independence and was elected to be its first
Prime Minister .
In
1965 Mapai joined with
Achdut Ha'Avoda-Poalei Tsion to form the "Labor Alignment". The "Labor Alignment" was a united list of two parties which are not united. In
1968 the two parties merged with
RaFĪ , a splinter group of Ben-Gurion supporters who had left Mapai a few years earlier, to form the ''Mifleget Ha-Avodah Ha-Yisraelit'' (the "Israeli Labor Party"). In 1969 the new party formed an electoral coalition with
Mapam which became the second Labor Alignment and continued to dominate the government.
Until
1977 , all the prime ministers were from the Mapai/ILP. The greatest opposition to the ILP was
Menachem Begin 's
Herut (which eventually became part of the
Likud bloc) - the right wing liberal party. In
1977 , following
Yitzhak Rabin resignation from office, the ILP lost in
The Elections to Begin.
In
1984 , as a result of an electoral stalemate in which neither Labor nor Likud was able to form a stable coalition, the two parties led by
Shimon Peres and
Yitzhak Shamir respectively formed a
National Unity Government with the
Prime Minister ship rotating between the two party leaders.
Mapam rejected this arrangement and left the Labor Alignment to join the
Parliamentary Opposition . The national unity government fell in
1990 following a failing political scam of
Peres and
Shas leader
Aryeh Deri .
In
1992 , the ILP won the election and
Yitzhak Rabin was elected as prime minister. During his term, he signed a
Peace Treaty With Jordan and ran the
Oslo Process . Opposition to the Oslo process eventually led to Rabin's assassination by a right-wing extremist,
Yigal Amir . Shimon Peres replaced Rabin until
1996 , when he lost in
The Elections to Likud's
Benjamin Netanyahu following a wave of
Suicide Bombing s by Palestinian terror group
Hamas .
On
1999 ,
Ehud Barak beat
Shimon Peres and became the leader of the party and its candidate for Prime minister. In
These Elections Israelis voted twice - once for the Knesset and once for Prime Minister. Ehud Barak created "
One Israel " (ישראל אחת) - a joint list of the Labor,
David Levy 's
Gesher and the
Religious Zionist Meimad . Barak's campaign was focusing on social and economical issues, and his reputation as a "not-politician" and "not-passing-screen" helped him to overcome and replace in office
Likud 's charismatic candidate
Benjamin Netanyahu .
However, Ehud Barak's tenure was short. He started by forming a 75-member coalition of Israel-One (26),
Shas (17),
Meretz (10), Israel-BaAliya (5),
Mafdal (5) and
United Torah Judaism (5). The coalition with religious right wing parties such as
Mafdal ,
Shas and
United Torah Judaism caused tensions with leftist and secularist Meretz. Meretz was the first to quit the coalition after a fight with Shas over the authority of the Deputy Education Minister. The rest of the parties left before the
Camp David 2000 Summit in the summer. Following the
October 2000 Riots and the violence of the
Al-Aqsa Intifada , Barak resigned from office and was replaced by
Ariel Sharon in
2001 (
The Elections were only for prime-minister).
Ariel Sharon formed a was appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs and
Benjanin Ben-Eliezer was appointed as
Defense Minister . Labor supported
Operation Defensive Shield , which was conducted in April
2002 against
Palestinian Terrorists in the
West Bank . After harsh criticism that Peres and Ben-Elizer were "puppets" of Sharon and not promoting the
Peace Process , Labor quit the government in
2003 .
In
2003 , general elections were held for the sixteenth
Knesset .
Likud won 40 seats, while the united list of Labor and
Meimad - led by former General and
Haifa Mayor
Amram Mitzna - won only 19. This was considered a blow to the "Old Lady" of Israeli politics. Mitzna resigned and Shimon Peres returned as party leader. Subsequently, Labor agreed to merge with the ''
Am Ehad '' workers' party, which held 3 seats. Although Am Ehad had little influence in the Knesset, it was an important party because its leader,
Amir Peretz , was also the chairman of the
Histadrut - the strongest Workers'
Union in Israel, founded by
Mapai .
In December
2004 Labor joined
Ariel Sharon 's
Likud to form a unity government in order to implement
Israel's Disengagement Plan from the
Gaza Strip . On
8 November 2005 Shimon Peres was replaced as the leader of the Labor party by the election of left-wing Histadrut union leader
Amir Peretz in an internal Labor party ballot. Peretz stated his intention to reassert Labor’s traditional
Socialist policies and took Labor party out of the government, prompting Sharon to resign and call for new elections in March
2006 . At those elections, the party placed second with 20 seats, a loss of 2 from the election previous.
Mapai evolved from the Socialist "Workers of Zion" party and adhered to the
Zionist Socialist ideology promulgated by
Nahum Syrkin and
Ber Borochov . During Ben-Gurion's leadership (1930s-1950s) Mapai focused mainly on the Zionist agenda, since it was the most urgent issue then - establishing a national homeland for
Jew s.
After the founding of the
State Of Israel , Mapai engaged in nation building - the establishment of the
Israel Defense Forces (while dismantling every other armed group), the establishment of many settlements, the settling of more than 1,000,000 Jewish immigrants and the desire to unite all the inhabitants of Israel under a new Zionist Jewish Israeli culture (an ideology known as the "
Melting Pot " כור היתוך).
Labor in the past was even more hawkish on security and defense issues than it is today. During its years in office, Israel has fought the
1956 Sinai War , the
1967 Six Day War and the
1973 Yom Kippur War .
In recent years (up until 2005), the ILP became a centrist party. It was no longer considered
Socialist or
Social Democratic (though it retained membership in the
Socialist International ) but had a social-liberal platform, similar to the third-way of
British Labour under
Tony Blair . Economic policies in Israel being seldom hotly debated even within the major parties, actual policies depended much more on initiative by the civil service than on political ideologies. Therefore, Labor's terms in office during this period did not differ significantly in terms of economic policy from those of its rival.
On the question of the
Arab-Israeli Conflict , the Labor party has three competing attitudes.
Dovish members, such as
Amram Mitzna ,
Avraham Burg , and
Yuli Tamir , support peace negotiations with the Palestinians and dismantling most Israeli settlements in the
West Bank . Some of them harshly criticize Israel's military tactics used against Palestinians - mainly the "targeted killing" of alleged terror leaders.
Semi-pragmatic ILP members, such as
Ophir Pines-Paz and
Benjamin Ben-Eliezer , support negotiations with the Palestinians conditional on ending terrorism and replacing the current Palestinian leadership with one committed to non-violence. Other semi-pragmatic ILP members support unilateral withdrawal from areas in the
West Bank beyond the
Israeli West Bank Barrier .
The pragmatic ILP members support Israel's military war against Palestinian terror groups. These members justify Israel's policy of targeting terror leader such as
Ahmed Yassin and
Abdel Aziz Rantissi . Many of these members have now merged with the moderate wing of the
Likud to form the centrist
Kadima Party, with the understanding that a Kadima government will promote the peace process and the dismantling of settlements.
In
2003 , the ILP experienced a small split when former members
Yossi Beilin and
Yael Dayan joined
Yachad to form a new left wing party.
In November 2005,
Amir Peretz , leader of the social democratic
Am Ehad which had merged into the ILP, was elected chairman of the party, defeating
Shimon Peres . Under Peretz, and especially in the
2006 Electoral Campaign , the party took a significant ideological turn, putting social and economic issues on top of its agenda, and advocating a moderate social democratic approach (including increases in minimum wage and social security payments), in sharp contrast to the
Neo-conservative policies led by former Finance Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu .
In
2006 , several members of the ILP left to join the new centrist grouping of the
Kadima Party; these included former Labor leader Shimon Peres,
Haim Ramon , and
Dalia Itzik .
The party's new leader, Amir Peretz, has sent out rather mixed signals during the early parts of the 2006 electoral campaign. On the one hand, he notably said that "the
Oslo way is not dead"; on the other hand, he expressed a commitment to fighting terrorism and keeping the integrity of united
Jerusalem .
Prominent former members include:
#
Amir Peretz (slot reserved for ILP Chairman)
#
Yitzhak Herzog
#
Ophir Pines-Paz
#
Avishai Braverman (former president of the
Ben-Gurion University Of The Negev )
#
Yuli Tamir (slot reserved for women)
#
Ami Ayalon (former head of
Shabak )
#
Eytan Kabel (slot reserved for ILP General Secretary)
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Binyamin Ben-Eliezer
#
Shelli Yehimovich (slot reserved for women)
#
Michael Melchior (slot reserved for
Meimad )
#
Matan Vilnai
#
Colette Avital (slot reserved for women)
#
Efraim Sneh
#
Dani Yatom
#
Nadyah Hilo (slot reserved for women)
#
Shalom Simhon (slot reserved for ''
Moshavim '')
#
Orit Noked (slot reserved for ''
Kibbutzim '')
#
Yoram Marciano (slot reserved for poor neighbourhoods)
#
Ghalib Al-Majadlah (slot reserved for
Arab sector)
