Mapai
Encyclopedia
Mapai was a left-wing
political party in Israel
, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger into the Israeli Labor Party in 1968. During Mapai's time in office, a welfare state was established, providing minimum income, security, and free (or almost free) access to housing subsidies and health and social services.
founded by A. D. Gordon
and the original Ahdut HaAvoda
(founded in 1919 from the right, more moderate, wing of the Marxist
Zionist
socialist Poale Zion
led by David Ben-Gurion
). In the early 1920s the Labor Zionist
movement had founded the Histadrut
Union, which dominated the Hebrew settlement economy and infrastructure, later making Mapai the dominant political faction in Zionist politics. It was also responsible for the founding of Hashomer
and Haganah
, the first two armed Jewish groups who secured the people and property of the new and emerging Jewish communities. By the early 1930s, David Ben-Gurion had taken over the party, and had become de-facto leader of the Jewish community in Palestine (known as the Yishuv
).
The party was a member of the Labour and Socialist International
between 1930 and 1940.
Due to its role in emerging victorious and independent from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
, the party was rewarded with large support in Israel's first elections in 1949
, winning 35.7% of the vote (well ahead of second-placed Mapam
's 14.7%) and 46 of the 120 seats. Ben-Gurion became Prime Minister
and formed a coalition with the United Religious Front
, the Progressive Party
, the Sephardim and Oriental Communities
and the Democratic List of Nazareth
(an Israeli Arab party associated with Mapai).
The 1951 elections
saw a further increase in support to 37.3% of the vote (47 seats) despite the country's economic problems
. Ben-Gurion again formed the government with the support of Mizrachi
, Hapoel HaMizrachi
, Agudat Israel
, Agudat Israel Workers
and the three Israeli Arab parties associated with Mapai, the Democratic List for Israeli Arabs
, Progress and Work
and Agriculture and Development
. However, he shocked the nation by resigning on 6 December 1953 in order to settle in the small Negev
kibbutz
of Sde Boker
, and was replaced by Moshe Sharett
.
The 1955 elections
saw the first drop in support, as the party recorded only 32.2% of the vote (40 seats), though still well ahead of the second-placed Herut
(12.6%). Ben Gurion returned as Prime Minister, and formed a coalition with the National Religious Front (which later changed its name to the National Religious Party
), Mapam
, Ahdut HaAvoda
, and the three Israeli Arab parties, the Democratic List for Israeli Arabs, Progress and Work and Agriculture and Development. Later the Progressive Party was also added.
In contrast to the previous one, the 1959 election
saw a surge in support, as the party recorded its best electoral performance, taking 38.2% of the vote and 47 seats. Ben-Gurion again invited the National Religious Party, Mapam, Ahdut HaAvoda, the Progressive Party and the three Israeli Arab parties, Progress and Development, Cooperation and Brotherhood and Agriculture and Development to form the coalition.
The Lavon Affair
which brought down the government in 1961 probably contributed to the party's relatively poor performance in the elections in the same year
, as it picked up only 34.7% of the vote and 42 seats. Although Ben-Gurion formed a strong coalition with the National Religious Party, Ahdut HaAvoda, Agudat Israel Workers, Cooperation and Brotherhood
and Progress and Development, two events during the fifth Knesset led to Mapai's reducing dominance.
Firstly, Ben-Gurion resigned as head of the party citing personal reasons, though in reality he was upset at a perceived lack of support from colleagues. He set up a new party, Rafi, taking with him seven other Mapai members. Secondly, the two major right-wing opposition parties, Herut
and the Liberal Party
had merged into Gahal
. This meant by the end of the Knesset session, Mapai had only 34 seats to Gahal's 27.
The party's response to the unprecedented strength of the opposition was to seek support from other parties with similar ideologies. The result was an alliance with Ahdut HaAvoda to form the Labor Alignment
before the 1965 election
. The new party won 36.7% of the vote and 45 seats, and comfortably beat Gahal (26 seats). On 23 January 1968 Mapai, Ahdut HaAvoda and Rafi merged into the Israeli Labor Party and ceased to exist as an individual entities.
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
political party in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger into the Israeli Labor Party in 1968. During Mapai's time in office, a welfare state was established, providing minimum income, security, and free (or almost free) access to housing subsidies and health and social services.
Background
The party was founded on 5 January 1930 by the merger of the Hapoel HatzairHapoel Hatzair
Hapoel Hatzair is a Zionist group which was active in Palestine from 1905 until 1930. They were founded by A.D. Gordon, Yosef Ahronowitz, Yosef Sprinzak and followed a non-Marxist, Zionist, socialist agenda. In accordance with A.D...
founded by A. D. Gordon
A. D. Gordon
Aaron David Gordon , more commonly known as A. D. Gordon, was a Zionist ideologue and the spiritual force behind practical Zionism and Labor Zionism. He founded Hapoel Hatzair, a movement that set the tone for the Zionist movement for many years to come. Influenced by Leo Tolstoy and others, it is...
and the original Ahdut HaAvoda
Ahdut HaAvoda
Ahdut HaAvoda was the name used by a sequence of political parties that existed firstly during Mandate Palestine and later in Israel. Its original version, led by David Ben-Gurion, is one of the main ancestors of the modern-day Israeli Labor Party....
(founded in 1919 from the right, more moderate, wing of the Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
Zionist
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
socialist Poale Zion
Poale Zion
Poale Zion was a Movement of Marxist Zionist Jewish workers circles founded in various cities of the Russian Empire about the turn of the century after the Bund rejected Zionism in 1901.-Formation and early years:Poale Zion parties and organisations were started across the Jewish diaspora in the...
led by David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion
' was the first Prime Minister of Israel.Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946...
). In the early 1920s the Labor Zionist
Labor Zionism
Labor Zionism can be described as the major stream of the left wing of the Zionist movement. It was, for many years, the most significant tendency among Zionists and Zionist organizational structure...
movement had founded the Histadrut
Histadrut
HaHistadrut HaKlalit shel HaOvdim B'Eretz Yisrael , known as the Histadrut, is Israel's organization of trade unions. Established in December 1920 during the British Mandate for Palestine, it became one of the most powerful institutions of the State of Israel.-History:The Histadrut was founded in...
Union, which dominated the Hebrew settlement economy and infrastructure, later making Mapai the dominant political faction in Zionist politics. It was also responsible for the founding of Hashomer
Hashomer
Hashomer was a Jewish defense organization in Palestine founded out of Bar-Giora in April 1909. It ceased to operate after the founding of the Haganah in 1920. The purpose of Hashomer was to provide guard services for Jewish settlements in the Yishuv, freeing Jewish communities from dependence...
and Haganah
Haganah
Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...
, the first two armed Jewish groups who secured the people and property of the new and emerging Jewish communities. By the early 1930s, David Ben-Gurion had taken over the party, and had become de-facto leader of the Jewish community in Palestine (known as the Yishuv
Yishuv
The Yishuv or Ha-Yishuv is the term referring to the body of Jewish residents in Palestine before the establishment of the State of Israel...
).
The party was a member of the Labour and Socialist International
Labour and Socialist International
The Labour and Socialist International was an international organization of socialist and labour parties, active between 1923 and 1940. The LSI was a forerunner of the present-day Socialist International....
between 1930 and 1940.
Due to its role in emerging victorious and independent from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
1948 Arab-Israeli War
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...
, the party was rewarded with large support in Israel's first elections in 1949
Israeli legislative election, 1949
Elections for the Constituent Assembly were held in newly independent Israel on 25 January 1949. Voter turnout was 86.9%. Two days after its first meeting on 14 February 1949, legislators voted to change the name of the body to the Knesset...
, winning 35.7% of the vote (well ahead of second-placed Mapam
Mapam
Mapam was a political party in Israel and is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Meretz party.-History:Mapam was formed by a January 1948 merger of the Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party and Ahdut HaAvoda Poale Zion Movement. The party was originally Marxist-Zionist in its outlook and represented...
's 14.7%) and 46 of the 120 seats. Ben-Gurion became Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Israel
The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of the Israeli government and the most powerful political figure in Israel . The prime minister is the country's chief executive. The official residence of the prime minister, Beit Rosh Hamemshala is in Jerusalem...
and formed a coalition with the United Religious Front
United Religious Front
The United Religious Front was a political alliance of the four major religious parties in Israel, as well as the Union of Religious Independents, formed to fight the 1949 elections.-History:...
, the Progressive Party
Progressive Party (Israel)
The Progressive Party was a political party in Israel.-History:The Progressive Party was a liberal party, most of whose founders came from the ranks of the New Aliyah Party and HaOved HaTzioni, which had been active prior to independence...
, the Sephardim and Oriental Communities
Sephardim and Oriental Communities
Sephardim and Oriental Communities was a political party in Israel and is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Likud party.-History:The Sephardim and Oriental Communities party represented Sephardi Jews and Mizrahi Jews who were already living in Israel at the time of independence, and was part...
and the Democratic List of Nazareth
Democratic List of Nazareth
The Democratic List of Nazareth was a political party in Israel and the only Israeli Arab party to win seats in the first Knesset. The party, which was sponsored by David Ben-Gurion's Mapai, was so named as it was based in Nazareth, the largest Arab city in Israel.-History:In the 1949 elections,...
(an Israeli Arab party associated with Mapai).
The 1951 elections
Israeli legislative election, 1951
Elections for the second Knesset were held in Israel on 30 July 1951. Voter turnout was 75.1%.-Results:¹ Rostam Bastuni, Avraham Berman and Moshe Sneh left Mapam and set up the Left Faction. Bastuni later returned to Mapam whilst Berman and Sneh joined Maki. Hannah Lamdan and David Livschitz left...
saw a further increase in support to 37.3% of the vote (47 seats) despite the country's economic problems
Austerity in Israel
From 1949 to 1959, the state of Israel was, to a varying extent, under a regime of austerity , during which rationing and similar measures were enforced.-Rationale:...
. Ben-Gurion again formed the government with the support of Mizrachi
Mizrachi (political party)
Mizrachi was a political party in Israel and is one of the ancestors of the modern-day National Religious Party.-History:The Mizrachi movement was founded in 1902 in Vilnius as a religious Zionist organisation. It also had a trade union, Hapoel HaMizrachi, started in 1921...
, Hapoel HaMizrachi
Hapoel HaMizrachi
Hapoel HaMizrachi |Mizrachi]] Workers) was a political party and settlement movement in Israel and is one of the predecessors of the National Religious Party.-History:...
, Agudat Israel
Agudat Israel
Agudat Yisrael began as the original political party representing the ultra-Orthodox population of Israel. It was the umbrella party for almost all ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel, and before that in the British Mandate of Palestine...
, Agudat Israel Workers
Agudat Israel Workers
Poalei Agudat Yisrael was a political party in Poland, and is a minor political party and settlement movement in Israel. It is also known as PAI or PAGI, its Hebrew acronym .-History:...
and the three Israeli Arab parties associated with Mapai, the Democratic List for Israeli Arabs
Democratic List for Israeli Arabs
The Democratic List for Israeli Arabs was a political party in Israel.-History:In the 1951 elections the party gained 2% of the vote and won 3 seats, which were taken by Seif el-Din el-Zoubi, Masaad Kassis and Jabr Muadi...
, Progress and Work
Progress and Work
Progress and Work was a political party in Israel.-History:The Progress and Work party was an Israeli Arab organisation formed to fight the 1951 elections...
and Agriculture and Development
Agriculture and Development
Agriculture and Development was a political party in Israel.-History:Agriculture and Development was an Israeli Arab organisation formed to fight the 1951 elections...
. However, he shocked the nation by resigning on 6 December 1953 in order to settle in the small Negev
Negev
The Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The Arabs, including the native Bedouin population of the region, refer to the desert as al-Naqab. The origin of the word Neghebh is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...
kibbutz
Kibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
of Sde Boker
Sde Boker
Sde Boker is a kibbutz in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Best known as the retirement home of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, it falls under the jurisdiction of Ramat HaNegev Regional Council.-History:...
, and was replaced by Moshe Sharett
Moshe Sharett
Moshe Sharett on 15 October 1894, died 7 July 1965) was the second Prime Minister of Israel , serving for a little under two years between David Ben-Gurion's two terms.-Early life:...
.
The 1955 elections
Israeli legislative election, 1955
Elections for the third Knesset were held in Israel on 26 July 1955. Voter turnout was 82.8%.-Results:Mapai retained its plurality in the Knesset, although its share of the vote dropped by 5.1 and its share of seats dropped from 47 to 40...
saw the first drop in support, as the party recorded only 32.2% of the vote (40 seats), though still well ahead of the second-placed Herut
Herut
Herut was the major right-wing political party in Israel from the 1940s until its formal merger into Likud in 1988, and an adherent of Revisionist Zionism.-History:...
(12.6%). Ben Gurion returned as Prime Minister, and formed a coalition with the National Religious Front (which later changed its name to the National Religious Party
National Religious Party
The National Religious Party ) was a political party in Israel representing the religious Zionist movement. Formed in 1956, at the time of its dissolution in 2008, it was the second oldest surviving party in the country after Agudat Yisrael, and was part of every government coalition until 1992...
), Mapam
Mapam
Mapam was a political party in Israel and is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Meretz party.-History:Mapam was formed by a January 1948 merger of the Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party and Ahdut HaAvoda Poale Zion Movement. The party was originally Marxist-Zionist in its outlook and represented...
, Ahdut HaAvoda
Ahdut HaAvoda
Ahdut HaAvoda was the name used by a sequence of political parties that existed firstly during Mandate Palestine and later in Israel. Its original version, led by David Ben-Gurion, is one of the main ancestors of the modern-day Israeli Labor Party....
, and the three Israeli Arab parties, the Democratic List for Israeli Arabs, Progress and Work and Agriculture and Development. Later the Progressive Party was also added.
In contrast to the previous one, the 1959 election
Israeli legislative election, 1959
Elections for the fourth Knesset were held in Israel on 3 November 1959. Voter turnout was 81.5%.-Results:¹ The General Zionists and the Progressive Party merged to form the Liberal Party....
saw a surge in support, as the party recorded its best electoral performance, taking 38.2% of the vote and 47 seats. Ben-Gurion again invited the National Religious Party, Mapam, Ahdut HaAvoda, the Progressive Party and the three Israeli Arab parties, Progress and Development, Cooperation and Brotherhood and Agriculture and Development to form the coalition.
The Lavon Affair
Lavon Affair
The Lavon Affair refers to a failed Israeli covert operation, code named Operation Susannah, conducted in Egypt in the Summer of 1954. As part of the false flag operation, a group of Egyptian Jews were recruited by Israeli military intelligence for plans to plant bombs inside Egyptian, American and...
which brought down the government in 1961 probably contributed to the party's relatively poor performance in the elections in the same year
Israeli legislative election, 1961
Elections for the fifth Knesset were held in Israel on 15 August 1961. Voter turnout was 81.6%.-Results:¹ Eight MKs broke away from Mapai to establish Rafi² Herut and the Liberal Party merged to form Gahal...
, as it picked up only 34.7% of the vote and 42 seats. Although Ben-Gurion formed a strong coalition with the National Religious Party, Ahdut HaAvoda, Agudat Israel Workers, Cooperation and Brotherhood
Cooperation and Brotherhood
Cooperation and Brotherhood was a political party in Israel.-History:Cooperation and Brotherhood was an Israeli Arab organisation formed to participate in the 1959 elections...
and Progress and Development, two events during the fifth Knesset led to Mapai's reducing dominance.
Firstly, Ben-Gurion resigned as head of the party citing personal reasons, though in reality he was upset at a perceived lack of support from colleagues. He set up a new party, Rafi, taking with him seven other Mapai members. Secondly, the two major right-wing opposition parties, Herut
Herut
Herut was the major right-wing political party in Israel from the 1940s until its formal merger into Likud in 1988, and an adherent of Revisionist Zionism.-History:...
and the Liberal Party
Liberal Party (Israel)
The Israeli Liberal Party was a political party in Israel and is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Likud.-History:The Liberal Party was formed on 8 May 1961, towards the end of the fourth Knesset, by a merger of the General Zionists and the Progressive Party, with the new party having 14...
had merged into Gahal
Gahal
Gahal , lit. Herut-Liberals Bloc) was the major right-wing political faction in Israel led by Menachem Begin from its founding in 1965 until it merged into Likud in 1973.-Background:...
. This meant by the end of the Knesset session, Mapai had only 34 seats to Gahal's 27.
The party's response to the unprecedented strength of the opposition was to seek support from other parties with similar ideologies. The result was an alliance with Ahdut HaAvoda to form the Labor Alignment
Alignment (political party)
The Alignment was an alliance of the major left-wing parties in Israel between the 1960s and 1990s. It was established in 1965 as an alliance of Mapai and Ahdut HaAvoda but was dissolved three years later when the two parties and Rafi formally merged into the Israeli Labor Party...
before the 1965 election
Israeli legislative election, 1965
Elections for the sixth Knesset were held in Israel on 1 November 1965. Voter turnout was 85.9%.-Background:Prior to the elections, two major alliances were formed; Mapai and Ahdut HaAvoda united to form the Alignment, whilst Herut and the Liberal Party had formed the Gahal alliance towards the end...
. The new party won 36.7% of the vote and 45 seats, and comfortably beat Gahal (26 seats). On 23 January 1968 Mapai, Ahdut HaAvoda and Rafi merged into the Israeli Labor Party and ceased to exist as an individual entities.
External links
- Worker's Party of Eretz Yisrael (Mapai) Knesset website