The Left Faction ( he, סיעת שמאל, ''Siat Smol'') was a short-lived

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

History

The Left Faction was formed on 20 February 1952 (during the second Knesset) as a breakaway from

Mapam Mapam ( he, מַפָּ״ם, an acronym for , ) was a left-wing political party in Israel. The party is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Meretz party. History Mapam was formed by a January 1948 merger of the kibbutz-based Hashomer Hatz ...

in the aftermath of the

Prague Trials Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate oc ...

. The

show trials A show trial is a public trial in which the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt or innocence of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal the presentation of both the accusation and the verdict to the public so th ...

in which mostly

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish leaders of the

Communist Party of Czechoslovakia The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (Czech and Slovak: ''Komunistická strana Československa'', KSČ) was a communist and Marxist–Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992. It was a member of the Cominte ...

were purged, falsely implicated

's envoy in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

Mordechai Oren Mordechai Oren (1905–1985) was a leader of Mapam and the Kibbutz Artzi Hashomer Hatzair. He was implicated in a scandal which created an uproar in the state of Israel during the early fifties when he was tried in a show trial in Eastern Eur ...

, as part of a

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

conspiracy. This, and later

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...

Secret Speech "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" (russian: «О культе личности и его последствиях», «''O kul'te lichnosti i yego posledstviyakh''»), popularly known as the "Secret Speech" (russian: секре ...

at the 20th Party Congress in the Soviet Union, led to Mapam moving away from some of their more radical left wing positions, and towards social democracy. Unhappy with the move, several Mapam MKs left the party; Moshe Aram,

Yisrael Bar-Yehuda Yisrael Bar-Yehuda ( he, ישראל בר-יהודה, 15 November 1895 – 15 May 1965) was a Zionist activist and Israeli politician. Biography Born Yisrael Idelson in Konotop, in the Chernigov Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Sum ...

Yitzhak Ben-Aharon Yitzhak Ben-Aharon ( he, יצחק בן אהרון;17 July 1906 – 19 May 2006) was an Israeli left-wing politician. He was a Knesset member from the first to the fifth Knessets and in the seventh and eighth, and a former Minister of Transpo ...

and

Aharon Zisling Aharon Zisling ( he, אהרון ציזלינג, 26 February 1901 – 16 January 1964) was an Israeli politician and minister and a signatory of Israel's declaration of independence. Biography Born in Minsk in the Russian Empire (now in Belarus ...

set up Ahdut HaAvoda-Poale Zion, Hannah Lamdan and

David Livschitz David Livschitz (, born 12 May 1897, died 30 October 1973) was a Russia-born Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Mapam, the Faction independent of Ahdut HaAvoda and Mapai between 1951 and 1959. Biography Born in the Rus ...

created the Faction independent of Ahdut HaAvoda, whilst

Rostam Bastuni Rostam Bastuni ( ar, رستم بستوني, he, רוסתם בסתוני; 15 March 1923 – 26 April 1994) was an Israeli politician and journalist, and the first Israeli Arab to represent a Zionist party in the Knesset. Biography Bastuni was bo ...

(the first

Israeli Arab The Arab citizens of Israel are the largest ethnic minority in the country. They comprise a hybrid community of Israeli citizens with a heritage of Palestinian citizenship, mixed religions (Muslim, Christian or Druze), bilingual in Arabic an ...

MK representing a Zionist party),

Adolf Berman Adolf Avraham Berman (, 17 October 1906 – 3 February 1978) was a Polish-Israeli activist and communist politician. Biography Born in Warsaw in the Russian Empire (today in Poland), the younger brother of Jakub Berman. Berman attended the Unive ...

and

Moshe Sneh Moshe Sneh ( he, מֹשֶׁה סְנֶה ; 6 January 1909 – 1 March 1972) was a Haganah commander and an Israeli politician. One of the founders of Mapam, he later joined the Israeli Communist Party (Maki). Biography Mosze Klaynboym (lat ...

established the Left Faction. However, the party ceased to exist on 1 November 1954 when Bastuni returned to Mapam and Berman and Sneh joined the communist party,

Maki Maki may refer to: People *Mäki, a Finnish surname (includes a list of people with the name) *Maki (name), a Japanese given name and surname (includes a list of people with the name) Places *Maki, Ravar, Kerman Province, Iran *Maki, Rigan, Ke ...

.Mergers and Splits Among Parliamentary Groups
Knesset website

References

External links

Party history
Knesset website {{Israeli political parties Political parties established in 1952 Defunct political parties in Israel Zionist political parties in Israel Political parties disestablished in 1954 Labor Zionism 1952 establishments in Israel