Ahdut HaAvoda
Ahdut HaAvoda אחדות העבודה | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1919 (Ahdut HaAvoda) 1944 (Ahdut HaAvoda Movement) 1954 (Ahdut HaAvoda - Poale Zion) |
| Dissolved | 23 January 1968 |
| Split from | Poale Zion (1919) Mapai (1944) Mapam (1954) |
| Merged into | Mapai (1930) Mapam (1948) |
| Newspaper | LaMerhav |
| Ideology | Labor Zionism |
| Alliances | Alignment (1965-1968) |
| Most MKs | 10 (1955-1959) |
| Fewest MKs | 4 (1954-1955) |
| Election symbol | |
| תו | |
Ahdut HaAvoda (Hebrew: אחדות העבודה, lit. Labour Unity) was a political party that existed during several spells in Mandate Palestine and Israel. It is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Israeli Labor Party.
History
Ahdut HaAvoda
The original Ahdut HaAvoda party was founded in Palestine in 1919 out of the right wing of the Poale Zion party, which had been founded in Ottoman ruled Palestine in 1906, and was headed by David Ben-Gurion. In 1930 it merged with the avowedly anti-Marxist Hapoel Hatzair to form Mapai, and effectively disappeared. Ahdut HaAvoda and Hapoel Hatzair had previously co-operated in 1920 to found the Histadrut.
Ahdut HaAvoda Movement
In 1944 a group known as Faction B (Hebrew: סיעה ב', Sia'a Bet) split from Mapai to establish the Ahdut HaAvoda Movement (Hebrew: התנועה לאחדות העבודה, HaTnu'a LeAhdut HaAvoda).
Ahdut HaAvoda Poale Zion Movement
In 1946 the Ahdut HaAvoda Movement merged with Poale Zion Left to form the Ahdut HaAvoda Poale Zion Movement (Hebrew: התנועה לאחדות העבודה פועלי ציון, HaTnu'a LeAhdut HaAvoda Poale Zion). Two years later the party merged with the Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party to form Mapam.
Ahdut HaAvoda - Poale Zion
On 23 August 1954 Moshe Aram, Yisrael Bar-Yehuda, Yitzhak Ben-Aharon and Aharon Zisling broke away from Mapam to re-establish Ahdut HaAvoda - Poale Zion. However, they were not recognised by the speaker of the Knesset as an independent party. The new party also launched a newspaper, LaMerhav, which became a daily publication in December that year, and was published until merging into Davar in May 1971.
The 1955 elections were fought as Ahdut HaAvoda and the party managed to win 10 seats, making them the fifth largest in the Knesset. They formed part of both of Ben-Gurion's governing coalitions during the third Knesset. Party member Nahum Nir was appointed Knesset speaker (the only time a speaker has not been a member of the ruling party), Bar-Yehuda was made Minister of Internal Affairs, and Moshe Carmel became Minister of Transportation. However, they party were ultimately responsible for bringing down the government in 1959 when they and fellow coalition partners Mapam voted against the government on the issue of selling arms to West Germany and refused to leave the coalition.
In the 1959 elections the party was reduced to seven seats. They again joined the coalition government until its collapse in 1961, with Ben-Aharon becoming Minister of Transportation. The 1961 elections saw them gain one seat, and become part of all three coalition governments of the fifth Knesset with Yigal Allon becoming Minister of Labour and Ben-Aharon, Bar-Yehuda and Carmel all acting as Minister of Transportation during the session.
For the 1965 elections, the party allied with Mapai to form the Labor Alignment, which won 45 seats. On 23 January 1968 the party merged with Mapai and Rafi to form the Israeli Labor Party and ceased to exist as an individual entity.
External links
- Ahdut HaAvoda - Poalei Zion Knesset website