Shmuel Mikunis was an communist

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

 Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i politician and member of the Knesset

Knesset

The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...

 from 1949 until 1973.

Biography

Born in the Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

 in what today is Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

, Mikunis immigrated

Aliyah

Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...

 to Mandate Palestine in 1921. He attended a polytechnic in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, and was qualified as an engineer, working for the Shell Oil Company

Shell Oil Company

Shell Oil Company is the United States-based subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, a multinational oil company of Anglo Dutch origins, which is amongst the largest oil companies in the world. Approximately 22,000 Shell employees are based in the U.S. The head office in the U.S. is in Houston, Texas...

 between 1933 and 1945.

He joined the Palestinian Communist Party

Palestinian Communist Party

The Palestinian Communist Party may refer to:*Socialist Workers Party of 1919 which was a precursor to**Palestinian Communist Party **Communist Party of Palestine, which existed from 1922 to 1923...

, and became secretary of its central committee in 1939. In 1944 he was elected to the Assembly of Representatives. When Maki

Maki (historical political party)

Maki was a communist political party in Israel. It is not the same party as the modern day Maki, which split from it during the 1960s and later assumed its name.-History:...

 (the Communist Party of Israel) was formed, he joined and served as its secretary until 1974. He also acted as an emissary of the party to communist countries to try to obtain weapons for 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...

.

A member of the Provisional State Council

Provisional State Council

The Provisional State Council was the temporary legislature of Israel from shortly before independence until the election of the first Knesset in January 1949...

, he was elected to the first Knesset

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...

 on Maki's list. He was re-elected in 1951, 1955, 1961, and 1965, by which time the party had been reduced to one seat due to a split (from which Rakah had been formed). He lost his seat in the 1969 elections

Israeli legislative election, 1969

Elections for the seventh Knesset were held in Israel on 28 October 1969. Voter turnout was 81.7%.-Results:¹ Meir Avizohar defected from the National List to the Alignment² Avner Shaki left the National Religious Party and remained a single MK...

, but re-entered the Knesset in March 1972 as a replacement for Moshe Sneh

Moshe Sneh

Moshe Sneh was an Israeli politician and military figure. One of the founders of Mapam, he later joined the Israeli Communist Party , and was one of the leaders of a more pro-Israeli split in 1965.-Biography:...

. Towards the end of the session, Maki and the Blue-Red Movement merged into Moked

Moked

Moked was a left-wing political party in Israel.-Background:Moked came into existence during the seventh Knesset, when Maki merged with the Blue-Red Movement, which was unrepresented....

 and Mikunis lost his seat in the 1973 elections

Israeli legislative election, 1973

The Elections for the eighth Knesset were held on 31 December 1973. Voter turnout was 78.6%.-Results:1 Aryeh Eliav left the Alignment and merged with Ratz to form Ya'ad - Civil Rights Movement...

.

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