Meretz

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Meretz
מרצ
ChairmanTomer Reznik
FoundersShulamit Aloni
Yair Tzaban
Amnon Rubinstein
Founded1992 (alliance)
1997 (single party)
Merger ofRatz, Mapam, Shinui
HeadquartersTel Aviv
Youth wingMeretz Youth
Ideology
Political positionLeft-wing
National affiliationDemocratic Union (2019–20)
European affiliationParty of European Socialists (observer)[3]
International affiliationProgressive Alliance[4]
Socialist International[5]
ColoursGreen
Knesset
0 / 120
Most MKs12 (1992–1996)
Election symbol
מרצ
م‌ر‌ص

[6]
Party flag
Website
meretz.org.il/en/ Edit this at Wikidata

Meretz (

Arabic: ميرتس[7] lit.'vigour'[8]) is a left-wing political party in Israel. The party was formed in 1992 by the merger of Ratz, Mapam and Shinui, and was at its peak between 1992 and 1996 when it had 12 seats. It currently has no seats in the Knesset, following its failure to pass the electoral threshold in the 2022 elections
, the first time it failed to win seats in the Knesset since the party's inception.

Meretz is a social-democratic and secular party emphasising a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, social justice, human rights (especially for religious, ethnic and sexual minorities), religious freedom and environmentalism.[9] The party is a member of the Progressive Alliance and Socialist International, and is an observer member of the Party of European Socialists.

The party's position on Zionism is disputed.[10][11]

History

Original logo of Meretz upon its formation in 1992, when Ratz, Shinui and Mapam formed the joint list

Meretz was formed prior to the

Minister of Immigrant Absorption
.

After the 1996 elections, in which Meretz lost a quarter of its seats, Aloni lost an internal leadership election to Yossi Sarid and retired, and the three parties decided to officially merge into a single entity by 1997. Although Shinui leader Amnon Rubinstein supported the merger, most Shinui members rejected it; once the merger became effective, part of Shinui (under the leadership of Rubinstein) broke away to participate in the merger, while the party mainstream elected Avraham Poraz as the new party leader and re-established Shinui as an independent movement. Later in the Knesset session, David Zucker also left the party to sit as an independent MK.

1999–2009

The 1999 Meretz leadership election saw

1999 Knesset election
.

The

Minister of Industry and Trade and Haim Oron Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. However, after Likud leader Ariel Sharon beat Barak in a special Prime Ministerial election in 2001
, Meretz left the government.

On 22 October 2002, Meretz MK Uzi Even made history by becoming the first openly gay Member of Knesset, after Amnon Rubinstein retired. This created a vacancy and Even was next on the Meretz list. His term lasted less than three months, however, as the Knesset was dissolved in January 2003. Even's entry to the Knesset was met by mixed reactions from the ultra-Orthodox parties; Shas's Nissim Ze'ev was the harshest, saying Even "symbolized the bestialization of humanity", adding that he should be "hidden under the carpet" and banned from entering the Knesset.[13]

For the 2003 elections, Meretz were joined by Roman Bronfman's Democratic Choice. However, the party shrank in representation again, this time to just six seats. Sarid immediately took responsibility and resigned from leadership, though he did not retire from the Knesset and continued serving as an MK, before stepping down prior to the 2006 elections.

In December 2003, Meretz was disbanded, in order to merge with Yossi Beilin's non-parliamentary Shahar (שח"ר‎) movement. The original name suggested for the new party was Ya'ad (יעד‎, Goal), but was not used because it sounded like the Russian word for poison ("yad"), and it was feared that it might alienate Israel's one million Russian-speaking voters (although there had been two parties previously in Israel using the name – Ya'ad and Ya'ad – Civil Rights Movement, the latter ironically a forerunner of Meretz, they both existed before large-scale immigration from the Soviet Union). Instead, the name Yachad (Hebrew: יח"ד) was chosen. As well as meaning "Together", it is also a Hebrew acronym for Social-Democratic Israel (Hebrew: ישראל חברתית דמוקרטית‎, Yisrael Hevratit Demokratit).

The new party was established in order to unite and resuscitate the Israeli Zionist peace camp, which had been soundly defeated in the 2003 elections (dropping from 56 Knesset members in 1992 to 24 in 2003) following the

Al-Aqsa Intifada.[citation needed] The party's purpose was to unite a variety of dovish Zionist movements with the dovish wing of the Labor Party. However, the efforts were largely unsuccessful as, except for the original Meretz, Shahar and Democratic Choice, no other movement joined the new party.[citation needed] It has suffered from declining popular interest in left-wing peace movements, and only 20,000 people are now registered members of the party, half the number who were prior to the 1999 party primaries.[citation needed
]

In March 2004, Yossi Beilin was elected party leader, beating Ran Cohen, and started a two-year term as the first chairman of Yachad. In July 2005, the party decided to change its name to Meretz-Yachad, because opinion polls revealed that the name Yachad was not recognisable to the Israeli public and that they preferred the old name Meretz. The chairman Beilin opposed the motion to revert the name to Meretz and a compromise between the old and new names, Meretz-Yachad, was agreed upon.

However, in the 2006 election campaign, the party dropped the Yachad part of its name, running as just Meretz, under the slogan "Meretz on the left, the Human in the centre". Nevertheless, it failed to stop the party's decline, as they won just five seats. In 2007,

Tsvia Greenfeld, sixth on the party list, became the first-ever female ultra-Orthodox
Knesset member, following Yossi Beilin's decision to retire from politics.

In March 2008, internal elections for the chairman of the party were held. At an early stage, Yossi Beilin,

Zehava Gal-On and Ran Cohen announced their bids. After Haim Oron announced his bid in December 2007, Beilin withdrew his bid and announced his support for him. Oron went on to win the internal elections held on 18 March 2008 with 54.5% of the vote, beating Ran Cohen (27.1%) and Zehava Gal-On (18.1%) to become Meretz's new chairman.[14]

On 22 December 2008, Meretz finalized its merger with Hatnua HaHadasha ("The New Movement") for the 2009 Israeli elections.[15]

2009–present

Meretz balloon flying at the Rabin memorial rally in Rabin Square, 1 November 2014

The joint Meretz–Hatnua HaHadasha list ended up winning only three seats in the election. This electoral loss was largely attributed to traditionally left-wing voters choosing to strategically vote for Kadima, in an effort to get Tzipi Livni to head the next government, instead of Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud.[16]

Following the party's failure in the 2009 legislative elections,

Zehava Gal-On, Ilan Gilon, and youth activist Ori Ophir began campaigning to win the position of the party chairman.[19]
The primaries were held on 7 February 2012 for the position of the party's chairman; Gal-On was elected as the chairman with 60.6% of the votes, whilst Ilan Gilon was second with 36.6%, and Uri Ofir was third with 2.8%.

Logo of Meretz 2012–2022

In the

Tel Aviv Convention Center: Zehava Gal-On was re-elected party leader, whilst MK Nitzan Horowitz chose not to stand for re-election.[22]

In 2015, as preliminary results of the Knesset elections indicated that the party representation would be reduced, Zehava Gal-On announced that she would resign as chairperson of Meretz as soon as a successor was chosen, and from the Knesset, in order to open a place for Tamar Zandberg, the party's fifth place-candidate who appeared to have lost her seat. Zandberg, Ilan Gilon, and others urged Gal-On to reconsider her decision.[23] However, once absentee and soldier ballots were counted, Meretz gained a fifth seat, negating the premise for Gal-On's earlier announcement,[24] and she announced that she would continue as party leader,[25] saying: "Meretz received a fifth seat from young supporters, from Israeli soldiers, who raised the party's rate of support. That allowed Meretz to maintain its strength in terms of the number of voters – some 170,000 – compared with the last election. Under the circumstances, and against all odds, that is a success."[26]

Tamar Zandberg became the leader of Meretz in 2018. In February 2019, Meretz held its first-ever open primary contest. Eighty-six percent of party members cast votes. Ilan Gilon won first place; he will be placed second on the party's Knesset slate, behind party leader Tamar Zandberg. Michal Rozin came in second place, followed by Issawi Frej and Ali Salalha.[27] In the April 2019 elections, the party won four seats.

In July 2019, Meretz agreed to form an electoral union, called the Democratic Union, with Ehud Barak's Israel Democratic Party and breakaway Labor MK Stav Shaffir for the September elections,[28] a decision ratified on 29 July.[29] The alliance won five seats, three of them going to Meretz. Prior to the March 2020 elections, the party joined an alliance with Labor and Gesher, which won seven seats, three of them held by Meretz.

After winning six seats in the March 2021 elections, Meretz joined a coalition government alongside Yesh Atid, Blue and White, Yamina, the Labor Party, Yisrael Beiteinu, New Hope and the United Arab List.[30] Three Meretz MKs became ministers, with Horowitz becoming Minister of Health, Zandberg Minister of Environmental Protection and Issawi Frej Minister of Regional Cooperation. This is the first time Meretz has returned to government since 2000.

The party did not win any seats in the

Zehava Gal-On, missing the electoral threshold by 3,800 votes, marking the first time that the party did not retain Knesset seats in an election.[31] The party's local candidates have reportedly struggled financially since the 2022 election, owing to the party's lack of representation in the Knesset.[32]

Ideology

Meretz marchers at the International Human Rights March, Tel Aviv, 7 December 2012

Meretz is positioned on the left-wing on the political spectrum.[33][34][35] It is a social-democratic,[36][37] and Left Zionist party,[38] that supports green politics,[39][40] progressive and egalitarian policies,[41][42] and secularism.[1][2] The party also supports two-state solution.[43]

In addition to being a full member of

Meretz petitioned the 2018 Nation-State Bill and petitioned the Supreme Court of Israel to invalidate the legislation, arguing it was discriminatory against Arabs and the Druze.[49]

Stated principles

The party emphasises the following principles (not necessarily in order of importance):

  • Making Israel a social-democratic welfare state.
  • Protecting workers' rights and fighting against their exploitation (especially, though not exclusively, in the case of foreign workers and immigrants).

Leaders

Leader Took office Left office Knesset elections Elected/re-elected as leader
1 Shulamit Aloni 1992 1996 1992
2 Yossi Sarid 1996 2003
1999, 2003
1999
3 Yossi Beilin 2004 2008 2006 2004[12]
4 Haim Oron 2008 2012 2009 2008[51]
5
Zehava Gal-On
2012 2018 2013, 2015 2012, 2015
6 Tamar Zandberg 2018 2019 2019 (Apr) 2018
7 Nitzan Horowitz 2019 2022 2019 (Sep), 2020, 2021 2019
(5)
Zehava Gal-On
2022 Incumbent 2022

Leadership election process

Shulamit Aloni became the party's leader in 1992 not by a formal leadership election, but instead by a consensus of the party's founding leaders. After her 1996 retirement as leader, the party held

1999 leadership election saw a broader electorate, with the delegates of the Party Convention voting for its leader. In the 2004 leadership election, the party again expanded its leadership election elecotrate, opening the leadership vote up to the party's general membership. More than 15,000 party members participated in this leadership election.[12] The 2012 leadership election saw a return to limiting the elecotrate to party convention delegates.[52] In the 2018 leadership election, voting was re-opened to the party's general membership,[53] before being closed for the 2019 leadership election,[54] and later re-opened in 2022.[55]

Election results

Election Leader Votes % Seats +/– Status
1992 Shulamit Aloni 250,667 9.58 (#3)
12 / 120
Increase 2 Coalition
1996 Yossi Sarid 226,275 7.41 (#5)
9 / 120
Decrease 3 Opposition
1999 253,525 7.66 (#4)
10 / 120
Increase 1 Coalition (1999–2000)
Opposition (2000–2003)
2003 164,122 5.21 (#6)
6 / 120
Decrease 4 Opposition
2006 Yossi Beilin 118,302 3.77 (#9)
5 / 120
Decrease 1 Opposition
2009 Haim Oron 99,611 2.95 (#10)
3 / 120
Decrease 2 Opposition
2013
Zehava Gal-On
172,403 4.55 (#8)
6 / 120
Increase 3 Opposition
2015 165,529 3.93 (#10)
5 / 120
Decrease 1 Opposition
Apr 2019 Tamar Zandberg 156,473 3.63 (#9)
4 / 120
Decrease 1 Snap election
Sep 2019 Nitzan Horowitz Part of the Democratic Union
3 / 120
Decrease 1 Snap election
2020 With Labor and Gesher
3 / 120
Steady Opposition
2021 202,218 4.59 (#12)
6 / 120
Increase 3 Coalition
2022
Zehava Gal-On
150,696 3.16 (#11)
0 / 120
Decrease 6 Extra-parliamentary

Knesset members

Knesset term Seats Members
1988–1992 10 Shulamit Aloni, Mordechai Virshubski, Ran Cohen, David Zucker, Yossi Sarid (Ratz), Haim Oron, Hussein Faris, Yair Tzaban (Mapam), Avraham Poraz, Amnon Rubinstein (Shinui)
1992–1996 12 Shulamit Aloni, Ran Cohen, David Zucker, Yossi Sarid, Naomi Chazan, Binyamin Temkin, Haim Oron, Walid Haj Yahia, Yair Tzaban, Anat Maor, Avraham Poraz, Amnon Rubinstein
1996–1999 9 Naomi Chazan, Ran Cohen, David Zucker (left 17 March 1999), Yossi Sarid, Haim Oron, Walid Haj Yahia, Anat Maor, Avraham Poraz (left 17 January 1999), Amnon Rubinstein
1999–2003 10
Zehava Gal-On, Naomi Chazan, Ran Cohen, Anat Maor, Amnon Rubinstein (replaced by Uzi Even on 31 October 2002), Yossi Sarid, Avshalom Vilan, Ilan Gilon
2003–2006 5
2006–2009 5
Zehava Gal-On, Avshalom Vilan
2009–2013 3
Zehava Gal-On on 24 March 2011), Ilan Gilon, Nitzan Horowitz
,
2013–2015 6
2015–2019 5
Zehava Gal-On (replaced by Mossi Raz on 22 October 2017), Ilan Gilon, Issawi Frej, Michal Rozin, Tamar Zandberg
2019 4 Tamar Zandberg, Ilan Gilon, Michal Rozin, Issawi Frej
2019–2020 3 Nitzan Horowitz, Tamar Zandberg, Ilan Gilon
2020–2021 4 Nitzan Horowitz, Tamar Zandberg, Yair Golan, Ilan Gilon
2021–2022 6 Nitzan Horowitz, Tamar Zandberg, Yair Golan, Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi, Issawi Frej (replaced by Ali Salalha on 18 July 2021), Mossi Raz
2022–present 0 none

Meretz supporters abroad

A number of left-wing Zionist organizations that share many of the ideas of Meretz are affiliated with the Israel-based World Union of Meretz, which is an ideological faction within the World Zionist Organization; this includes the London-based Meretz UK, France's Cercle Bernard Lazare and the USA's Partners for Progressive Israel. The World Union of Meretz has representation in other organizations, including the Jewish National Fund.

Hashomer Hatzair, a progressive Zionist youth movement with branches in many countries, is informally associated with Meretz; it had previously been affiliated with Mapam.

American Jewish comedian Sarah Silverman, whose sister Susan moved from the US to Israel and is a Reform rabbi there, asked Israeli voters to choose Meretz in the 2015 election.[56][57]

See also

References

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  7. ^ إسرائيل, راؤول ووتليف وطاقم تايمز أوف. "حزب ميرتس وإيهود باراك، والمنشقة عن حزب العمل ستاف شافير يعلنون عن قائمة جديدة مشتركة". تايمز أوف إسرائيل. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
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  11. ^ "Meretz, Once the Beating Heart of the Israeli Left, No Longer Considers Itself a Zionist Party". Tablet Magazine. 3 November 2017. Late last month, news broke in Israel that the party had deleted any reference to Zionism from its platform, perhaps as early as 2009. Subsequent attempts by reporters to ascertain whether the party still considers itself Zionist—the very question would've seemed absurd to any of us young political animals in the early 1990s—revealed organizational and ideological chaos. The party's head, Zehava Galon, said Meretz remained as committed as ever to Zionism. Her spokeswoman, May Ossi, said the exact opposite: "Meretz," she told Haaretz, "is a non-Zionist Israeli political party, the party of all citizens because the very idea of Zionism necessarily erases an entire other people." Mossi Raz, the party's secretary-general, claimed that Meretz had never defined itself as a Zionist party
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  17. Channel 2 News
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  18. ^ פרידה בדמעות מג'ומס: "אחד הפרלמנטרים הבולטים שעיצבו את הכנסת" [Farewell tears of Oron: "One of the most prominent parliamentarians who shaped the Knesset"] (in Hebrew). Knesset. 23 March 2011. Archived from the original on 21 September 2011. Retrieved 19 May 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
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  21. ^ "Meretz and Labor sign vote-sharing agreement". The Jerusalem Post. 8 December 2014. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
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  26. ^ "LIVE BLOG: Final vote tally gives Likud, Meretz extra Knesset seats". Haaretz. 19 March 2015. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
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  28. ^ Holmes, Oliver (25 July 2019). "Barak forges leftwing alliance in bid to end Netanyahu's reign". The Guardian.
  29. ^ Staff writer (29 July 2019). "Meretz central committee approves merger with Barak's Israel Democratic Party". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  30. ^ Berkowitz, Adam Eliyahu (18 August 2021). "How the Taliban conquest could return Ten lost Tribes to Israel". Israel365 News | Latest News. Biblical Perspective.
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  32. ^ Schneider, Tal (21 August 2023). "With Meretz wiped out of Knesset, party's local candidates struggle to raise funds". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 17 November 2023.
  33. .
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  45. ^ Attila Somfalvi (19 September 2008). "Livni reaches out to Meretz". Ynetnews. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
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  54. ^ Zaken, Danny; Schneider, Tal (27 June 2019). "הורוביץ ניצח את זנדברג בבחירות לראשות מרצ" [Horowitz defeated Zandberg in Meretz leadership election]. Globes (in Hebrew). Retrieved 23 July 2021.
  55. ^ Zaken, Danny (23 August 2022). "הקרב על ראשות מרצ: הפריימריז יוצאים היום לדרך" [The Battle for the Leadership of Meretz: Primaries begin today]. Globes. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
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  57. ^ Sarah Silverman (11 March 2015). "Israel!". Twitter. Retrieved 16 June 2015.

External links

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