Political party in Israel
The
General Zionists
(
Hebrew
:
???????????? ????????????
,
romanized
:
HaTzionim HaKlaliym
) were a centrist
Zionist
movement and a
political party in Israel
. The General Zionists supported the leadership of
Chaim Weizmann
and their views were largely colored by central European culture.
[2]
The party was considered to have both
conservative
and
liberal
wings,
[3]
[4]
[5]
and is one of the ancestors of the modern-day
Likud
.
History
[
edit
]
General Zionism initially referred to the beliefs of the majority of members of the
Zionist Organization
(ZO) who had not joined a specific
faction
or party and belonged to their countrywide Zionist organizations only.
[6]
The term was first used at the 1907
Zionist Congress
to describe the delegates who were neither affiliated with
Labor Zionism
nor
religious Zionism
.
[7]
In 1922, various non-aligned groups and individuals established the Organization of General Zionists as a non-ideological party within the Zionist Organization (later the World Zionist Organization) at a time when the Zionist movement was becoming polarized between
Labour Zionists
and
Revisionist Zionism
. Eventually the General Zionists became identified with European
liberal
and
middle class
beliefs in
private property
and
capitalism
.
In 1929, the General Zionists established a world organization, holding their first conference in 1931. At this conference, rifts opened up between the conservative right wing and those who held more moderate views.
[2]
They were divided over social issues, economics and
labour
issues (e.g. the
Histadrut
). The "General Zionists A" favored the economic policies of Labour Zionism and were supportive of
Chaim Weizmann
's compromising approach to relations with the British. The "General Zionists B" were skeptical of socialism and more outspoken against British policy in Palestine.
[8]
After the independence of the State of Israel, the gap between the two groups widened. The General Zionists A helped form the
Progressive Party
, which won 5 seats in 1949 Knesset elections and entered the Mapai-led governing coalition. The General Zionists B, running as the General Zionists, won 7 seats and chose to remain in the opposition.
[8]
In the years following the establishment of the state of
Israel
in 1948, the General Zionists moved towards the right in opposition to the hegemony of
Mapai
and other Labour Zionist movements in Israeli politics.
The General Zionist party supported private enterprise, the suspension of state support to collective institutions, and the termination of the
Histadrut
's control of the economy. However, it favored leaving the Histadrut with state control over several aspects of economy and welfare. It also supported a unified system of education (as it contributed to the passage of the 1953 State Education Law) and a written constitution to enshrine democratic freedom and civil rights. It was
secularist
, though not as vocally so as the Progressive Party.
[9]
In 1936 the General Zionists established a daily newspaper,
HaBoker
, which was edited for the first ten years of its existence by
Peretz Bernstein
. It ceased publication in 1965.
Political activity in Israel
[
edit
]
The General Zionists entered the
elections for the first Knesset
in 1949. They won 5.2% of the vote and seven seats, and were not included in either of
David Ben-Gurion
's coalition governments.
The
1951 elections
were a huge success, with the party winning 20 seats, making it the second largest in the
Knesset
. The party was enlarged soon after the elections when the
Sephardim and Oriental Communities
party and the
Yemenite Association
merged into it (though the one Yemenite Association MK left the party again before the end of the session). Although it was not included in the coalition for the third government, it was brought into the fourth government after Ben-Gurion had sacked the
Ultra-orthodox
parties,
Agudat Yisrael
and
Poalei Agudat Yisrael
, over the dispute over
religious education
that had brought down the previous government. It was also included in
Moshe Sharett
's fifth government, but not the sixth.
In the
1955 elections
the party slumped to 13 seats, and were not included in either of the third Knesset's coalition governments.
A further slump to eight seats in the
1959 elections
and exclusion from the coalition made the party rethink its strategy. Eventually the party decided to merge with the 6-seat
Progressive Party
to form the
Liberal Party
. Nevertheless, the party helped bring down the government in 1961 when it and
Herut
tabled a
motion of no confidence
in the government over the
Lavon Affair
.
In the
1961 elections
the new
Israel Liberal Party
won 17 seats, making it the third largest in the Knesset. During the session, ten MKs (mostly former General Zionists) merged with the
right-wing
Herut
to form
Gahal
while the other seven (most from the Progressive Party) set up the
Independent Liberals
. Gahal later became
Likud
.
Leaders
[
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]
Knesset election results
[
edit
]
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
External links
[
edit
]
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Parliamentary
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Extra-
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Defunct
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