Democratic Movement for Change

Democratic Movement for Change תנועה דמוקרטית לשינוי‎
Leader	Yigael Yadin
Founded	2 November 1976
Dissolved	14 September 1978
Ideology	Liberalism[1][2] Reformism[3] Zionism
Political position	Center
Most MKs	15 (1977)
Election symbol
יש‎
Politics of Israel Political parties Elections

The Democratic Movement for Change (

. Formed in 1976 by numerous well-known non-politicians, it ceased to exist two years later.

Background

Dash was formed on 2 November 1976 by the merger of several liberal movements (including

.

The party's formation was the result of a growing dissatisfaction with the mainstream parties, particularly the ruling

, the Alignment had been hit with numerous scandals during the mid-1970s, including:

• The suicide of Housing Minister, Avraham Ofer, after a police investigation began into allegations he used party funds illegally.
• Asher Yadlin, the governor-designate of the Bank of Israel was found guilty of accepting bribes and sentenced to five years in prison (the Yadlin affair).
• Leah Rabin, wife of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was found to have an overseas bank account, illegal in Israel at the time (the Dollar Account affair).

Initially the party was called Democrats–Shinui (דֵּמוֹקְרָטִים־שִׁינּוּי, Demokratim–Shinui), but was soon changed to the Democratic Movement for Change and, as with many parties in Israel, became popularly known by its acronym, Dash. The new party caught the public's imagination, with over 37,000 people signing up as members within a few weeks of its foundation. It also pioneered the use of

) has followed Dash's lead and adopted the primaries system.

Dash did surprisingly well in its first electoral test, picking up 15 of the 120 seats in the

.

Much of Dash's success came at the expense of the Labor Party, with which it competed for the votes of mainly Ashkenazi higher-income and better-educated citizens.^[4] This had the effect of guaranteeing Likud's first victory.^[5]

The party was invited into the coalition in November 1977, five months after the Knesset term had started. The party picked up several ministerial portfolios -

and Yadin was named as Deputy Prime Minister.

However, the fact that the party did not control the balance of power led to internal disagreements over its role. The party began to disintegrate, finally splitting in three on 14 September 1978, with seven MKs breaking away to reform Shinui, another seven founding the Democratic Movement and Assaf Yaguri creating Ya'ad. Shinui (including Amit) and Ya'ad left the coalition, whilst the Democratic Movement, which included Tamir and Yadin, remained in the government.

Nonetheless, even the new parties were not stable, with the Democratic Movement also crumbling. In 1980, three of its seven members left to found

sitting as independents for the rest of the Knesset term. Tamir lost his ministerial position in 1980, though Yadin remained Deputy PM. Ahva also followed the breakup pattern, losing two of its three MKs before the Knesset term ended.

Further changes occurred when two Shinui MKs defected to the Alignment and two of the three Ahva MKs left the party.

Aftermath

The only long-lasting faction of the collapse was

.

Shinui met a similar fate to its predecessor. In the

.

Leaders

Leader			Took office	Left office
		Yigael Yadin	1976	1978

Election results

Election	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Leader	Status
1977	202,265 (#3)	11.6	15 / 120	New party	Yigael Yadin	Government

Knesset members

Knesset (MKs)	Knesset Members
9th (15)	Shlomo Eliyahu )

References

External links

• Democratic Movement for Change (DMC) Knesset website