Progress and Work ( he, קִדְמָה וְעֲבוֹדָה, ''Kidma VeAvoda'', ar, الزراعة والتطوير) was an Arab satellite list 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 ...

History

The Progress and Work party was an

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 ...

organisation formed to fight the 1951 elections. Like most other Israeli

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

parties at the time, it was associated with

David Ben-Gurion David Ben-Gurion ( ; he, דָּוִד בֶּן-גּוּרִיּוֹן ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first prime minister of Israel. Adopting the nam ...

Mapai Mapai ( he, מַפָּא"י, an acronym for , ''Mifleget Poalei Eretz Yisrael'', lit. "Workers' Party of the Land of Israel") was a democratic socialist political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger in ...

party, as Ben Gurion was keen to include Israeli Arabs in the functioning of the state in order to prove

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""T ...

s and Arabs could co-exist peacefully and productively. In the elections, the party won only one seat, taken by its leader,

Salah-Hassan Hanifes Salah-Hassan Hanifes ( ar, صالح حسن خنيفس, he, סאלח-חסן ח'ניפס; 1 March 1913 – 16 March 2002) was a Druze Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Progress and Work between 1951 and 1959. Biography ...

. Because of its association with

, the party joined the governing coalition in all four governments of the second Knesset. In the 1955 elections, the party won two seats. Saleh Suleiman took the second seat, and the party was again part of the coalition. In 1959, a falling-out between Hanifes and Mapai led to Hanifes setting up a new party, the Independent Faction for Israeli Arabs, to fight the 1959 elections. Both parties failed to cross the

electoral threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of the primary vote that a candidate or political party requires to achieve before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can ...

, with Progress and Work receiving 0.5% of the votes, and the Independent Faction 0.4%. In the 1961 elections, the party won 0.4% of the vote. After its second failure to cross the threshold, the party disappeared.

External links

Progress and Work
Knesset website Defunct political parties in Israel Arab political parties in Israel {{israel-party-stub