General Zionists
General Zionists ציונים כלליים | |
---|---|
Liberal Party | |
Headquarters | Tel Aviv, Israel |
Newspaper | HaBoker |
Ideology | Zionism Liberalism Classical liberalism Economic liberalism |
Political position | Pre-1948: Centre 1948–1961: Centre-right[1] |
Most MKs | 23 (1951) |
Election symbol | |
The General Zionists (
History
General Zionism initially referred to the beliefs of the majority of members of the
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
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.
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
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
The General Zionists entered the
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
In the
Leaders
Leader | Took office | Left office | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Peretz Bernstein | 1949 | 1961 | |
2 | Israel Rokach | 1949 | 1955 | |
3 | Yosef Sapir | 1955 | 1961 |
Knesset election results
Election | Leader | Votes | % | Place | Seats won | +/− |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1949
|
Peretz Bernstein Israel Rokach |
22,661 | 5.2 | 5th | 7 / 120
|
|
1951 | 111,394 | 16.2 | 2nd | 20 / 120
|
13 | |
1955 | 87,099 | 10.2 | 3rd | 13 / 120
|
7 | |
1959 | Peretz Bernstein Yosef Sapir |
59,700 | 6.2 | 5th | 8 / 120
|
5 |
1961 | Part of the Liberal Party | 7 / 120
|
1 |
See also
- Liberalism in Israel
- Liberal Zionism
- Likud
References
- ISBN 978-1-134-35746-8.
- ^ ISBN 9780521038270. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
- ISBN 978-1-400-82236-2.
- ISBN 978-0-300-04494-2.
- ISBN 978-0-521-19378-8.
- ^ "General Zionism". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
- ISBN 9781623710330.
- ^ ISBN 9781135966423. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
- ISBN 08386-7567-0. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
External links
- General Zionists Knesset website