The National Left (Israel)
Encyclopedia
The National Left is an Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i political movement
Political movement
A political movement is a social movement in the area of politics. A political movement may be organized around a single issue or set of issues, or around a set of shared concerns of a social group...
striving to express the classic values of Zionism
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...
and the Israeli Left
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
in face of the dwindling electoral
Election
An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the...
success of left-wing parties in recent decades: "...Our great and Zionist national Left, who wants, just like Binyamin Ze'ev Herzl, 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...
and Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin
' was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995....
, a Jewish democratic state with recognizable and defendable borders, an exemplary, model society, and social justice" (translated from The National Left site).
The movement was created on the foundation of "The National Left, a first draft", a 2009 manifesto by playwright Shmuel Hasfari
Shmuel Hasfari
Shmuel Hasfari is an Israeli playwright and screenwriter. He was artistic director of the Cameri Theatre.-Biography:...
and attorney Eldad Yaniv describing the state of the Israeli Left and the potential dangers of continued Israeli presence in the West Bank territories
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
, and attempting to restore the Left's influence on Israel's political agenda by promoting a pragmatic agenda based on the values of the Left, an Israeli pullout from the West Bank and an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
, and turning the Israeli society into a "model society". The book was criticized for its harsh denouncement of settlers and the settlement enterprise, and its distribution by bookstore chain Tzomet Sfarim was stopped, following pressure by right-wing sources.
On May 15, 2010, the movement held a rally in Jerusalem under the banner "Zionists do not settle". The demonstration was organized by The National Left, Peace Now and other left-wing organizations.