The National Union ( he, האיחוד הלאומי, ''HaIhud HaLeumi'') was an
alliance of
right-wing
Right-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that view certain social orders and Social stratification, hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this pos ...
and nationalist
political parties
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 ...
in
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 ...
. In its final full form, the alliance consisted of four parties:
Moledet
Moledet ( he, מולדת, ''Homeland'') was a minor right-wing political party in Israel.
History
Moledet was established by Rehavam Ze'evi in 1988. It won two seats in the Knesset elections later that year, taken by Ze'evi and Yair Sprinza ...
,
Hatikva,
Eretz Yisrael Shelanu
Eretz Yisrael Shelanu ( he, ארץ ישראל שלנו, lit., ''Land of Israel is Ours'') is a far-right religious party in Israel. Founded by Chabad Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpo and Baruch Marzel on 11 November 2008, it seeks to prevent both the crea ...
, and
Tkuma. Leading up to the
2013 Knesset elections
Early elections for the nineteenth Knesset were held in Israel on 22 January 2013. Public debate over the Tal Law had nearly led to early elections in 2012, but they were aborted at the last moment after Kadima briefly joined the government. Th ...
, only Tkuma remained, and joined
The Jewish Home
The Jewish Home ( he, הַבַּיִת הַיְהוּדִי, HaBayit HaYehudi) is an Orthodox Jewish and religious Zionist political party in Israel. It was originally formed by a merger of the National Religious Party, Moledet, and Tkuma in ...
. During its existence, it had also included
Ahi,
Herut – The National Movement, the
Jewish National Front, and
Yisrael Beiteinu
Yisrael Beiteinu ( he, יִשְׂרָאֵל בֵּיתֵנוּ, russian: Наш Дом Израиль, lit. ''Israel Our Home'') is a secularist, nationalist right-wing political party in Israel. The party's base was originally secular Russia ...
.
Background
The National Union was formed in 1999 to contest the
elections of that year as an alliance between Moledet, Tkuma, and
Herut – The National Movement, winning four seats. In 2001, the party's support was almost doubled by the addition of the predominantly
Russian-immigrant party,
Yisrael Beiteinu
Yisrael Beiteinu ( he, יִשְׂרָאֵל בֵּיתֵנוּ, russian: Наш Дом Израиль, lit. ''Israel Our Home'') is a secularist, nationalist right-wing political party in Israel. The party's base was originally secular Russia ...
.
After
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon (; ; ; also known by his diminutive Arik, , born Ariel Scheinermann, ; 26 February 1928 – 11 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006.
S ...
won the
2001 Prime Ministerial elections, National Union was brought into the
National Unity Government, and party leader
Rehavam Zeevi was appointed Minister of Tourism, with Yisrael Beiteinu leader
Avigdor Lieberman becoming Minister of National Infrastructure. When Zeevi was assassinated on 17 October 2001,
Binyamin Elon
Rabbi Binyamin "Benny" Elon ( he, בנימין אלון, 10 November 1954 – 5 May 2017) was an Israeli Orthodox rabbi and politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Moledet and the National Union between 1996 and 2009. A ninth-genera ...
of Moledet took his ministerial position, and Lieberman became head of the National Union.
Herut ran independently in the
2003 elections, and did not pass the barrier. The National Union party won seven seats, and was included in Ariel Sharon's coalition, alongside
Likud
Likud ( he, הַלִּיכּוּד, HaLikud, The Consolidation), officially known as Likud – National Liberal Movement, is a major centre-right to right-wing political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin and Ariel S ...
,
Shinui, the
National Religious Party
The National Religious Party ( he, מִפְלָגָה דָּתִית לְאֻומִּית, ''Miflaga Datit Leumit'', commonly known in Israel by its Hebrew acronym Mafdal, ) was a political party in Israel representing the religious Zionist moveme ...
, and
Yisrael BaAliyah. Elon and Lieberman were appointed Minister of Tourism and Minister of Transportation, respectively.
The National Union opposed the
withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Sharon sacked ministers Elon and Lieberman, and the National Union left the coalition (Elon attempted to avoid sacking by going into hiding, but ultimately failed).
However, the National Union was then bolstered by the addition of the
Renewed Religious National Zionist Party (later renamed Ahi), which had been formed by NRP dissidents opposed to the Gaza withdrawal after the NRP had decided to remain in the coalition. After withdrawal, the National Union adopted orange as its symbol, the color having been used by anti-disengagement protesters.
In 2005, Yisrael Beiteinu left the National Union to run independently in the
2006 elections. At the last minute, the National Religious Party decided to form a joint list with National Union called ''National Union - NRP''. The combined list adopted more social policies, and won the support of the chief rabbis of
Religious Zionism
Religious Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת דָּתִית, translit. ''Tziyonut Datit'') is an ideology that combines Zionism and Orthodox Judaism. Its adherents are also referred to as ''Dati Leumi'' ( "National Religious"), and in Israel, th ...
(such as Rabbi
Abraham Shapira
Avraham Shapira ( he, אברהם אלקנה כהנא שפירא; 20 May 1914, Jerusalem – 27 September 2007) was a prominent rabbi in the Religious Zionist world. Shapira had been the head of the Rabbinical court of Jerusalem, and both ...
), and the Union of Handicapped (thanks to the NRP's pro-handicapped legislation). The joint list used the slogan ''New Right Rising'' (Hebrew: ימין חדש עולה, ''Yamin Hadash Oleh''), and won nine seats, of which the National Union took six.
In 2008, in anticipation of the 2009 elections, the National Union and NRP formally unified into a single party, called
the Jewish Home
The Jewish Home ( he, הַבַּיִת הַיְהוּדִי, HaBayit HaYehudi) is an Orthodox Jewish and religious Zionist political party in Israel. It was originally formed by a merger of the National Religious Party, Moledet, and Tkuma in ...
. This was intended to unify their political sector and present the public with a new face for the religious Zionist movement. The Jewish Home was to be a single party, rather than a list of separate parties, each with its own agenda and independent leadership. Professor
Daniel Hershkowitz
Daniel Hershkowitz ( he, דניאל הרשקוביץ; born 2 January 1953 in Haifa, Israel) is an Israeli politician, mathematician, and Orthodox rabbi. Since 2018, he has headed the . He is professor emeritus of mathematics at the Technion, an ...
was picked to head the newly formed party. However, MK
Aryeh Eldad left to form his own list, Hatikva, while MKs
Effi Eitam and
Yitzhak Levy (formerly of Ahi) re-established Ahi, which later merged into
Likud
Likud ( he, הַלִּיכּוּד, HaLikud, The Consolidation), officially known as Likud – National Liberal Movement, is a major centre-right to right-wing political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin and Ariel S ...
. When the Jewish Home announced its candidate list for the elections, five of the top six slots went to ex-NRP members, with only MK
Uri Ariel, formerly of Tkuma, in the top six.
The remaining ex-Moledet members broke off, re-established their party, and allied with MK Eldad's Hatikva, reviving the National Union name. Elon stated that he would not seek re-election, and American immigrant
Uri Bank took his place on the Jewish Home list. The split from Jewish Home grew, and polls indicated Hatikva could win three seats.
Eretz Yisrael Shelanu
Eretz Yisrael Shelanu ( he, ארץ ישראל שלנו, lit., ''Land of Israel is Ours'') is a far-right religious party in Israel. Founded by Chabad Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpo and Baruch Marzel on 11 November 2008, it seeks to prevent both the crea ...
also joined the National Union, with member
Michael Ben-Ari given fourth spot on the alliance's list. While these issues were being negotiated, Uri Ariel also left Jewish Home and rejoined the National Union list, leaving Jewish Home as little more than a renamed NRP.
In preparation for the
2013 Knesset elections
Early elections for the nineteenth Knesset were held in Israel on 22 January 2013. Public debate over the Tal Law had nearly led to early elections in 2012, but they were aborted at the last moment after Kadima briefly joined the government. Th ...
, the Tkuma faction of the National Union merged with the Jewish Home. Ya'akov Katz, chairman of the party, asked to be lower on the list of Tkuma members, and soon after resigned from politics. Hatikva and Eretz Yisrael Shelanu broke off, and merged to form
Otzma LeYisrael. while Moledet and Tkuma merged with the Jewish Home.
In the elections held on 22 January 2013, the Jewish Home received 9% of the vote, winning twelve seats in the Knesset.
Controversy
National Union had come under scrutiny for its sympathy towards right-wing "
price-tag" militants, who engaged in
vandalist activities targeting both the state of Israel and
Palestinians
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
, including siding with such militants in clashes with Israeli authorities. When a group of "hilltop youth" militants attacked an Israeli army base in late 2011, MK
Uri Ariel protested Israeli officials who called the group "terrorists", and condemned calls for the use of lethal force to repel such attacks in the future. In January 2012, Ariel admitted to giving IDF troop movement information to such militants in order to facilitate disruption of army activities.
In 2009, MK
Michael Ben-Ari was arrested after interfering with police attempts to arrest a settler who had been rioting against Palestinians in protest of proposed settlement evacuations. In March 2011, Ben-Ari criticized arrests of settlers who had thrown stones at the police in order to block the service of an arrest warrant, comparing Internal Security Minister
Yitzhak Aharonovitch to
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by '' The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...
and declaring that "his days are numbered".
In 2012, MK
Aryeh Eldad and MK
Michael Ben-Ari sparked controversy by calling for asylum seekers entering Israel to be shot.
Composition
Party leaders
Election results
Knesset members
Notes
References
External links
National UnionKnesset website
*
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Facebook Young Leadership of National Union
{{Israeli political parties
Defunct political party alliances in Israel
Religious Zionist political parties in Israel
Zionist political parties in Israel
Neo-Zionism
Nationalist parties in Asia
Political parties established in 1999
Conservative parties in Israel
1999 establishments in Israel
Political parties disestablished in 2013
Right-wing parties
2013 disestablishments in Israel
Right-wing politics in Israel