Sephardim and Oriental Communities ( he, סְפָרַדִּים וְעֵדוֹת מִזְרָח, ''Sfaradim VeEdot Mizrah'') was a

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 ideological or p ...

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 ...

and is one of the ancestors of the

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 ...

party.

History

The Sephardim and Oriental Communities party represented

Sephardi Jews Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefa ...

and

Mizrahi Jews Mizrahi Jews ( he, יהודי המִזְרָח), also known as ''Mizrahim'' () or ''Mizrachi'' () and alternatively referred to as Oriental Jews or ''Edot HaMizrach'' (, ), are a grouping of Jewish communities comprising those who remained ...

who were already living in Israel at the time of

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the stat ...

, and was part of Minhelet HaAm and the

Provisional government A provisional government, also called an interim government, an emergency government, or a transitional government, is an emergency governmental authority set up to manage a political transition generally in the cases of a newly formed state or ...

in 1948–49. Under the full title of ''The National Unity List of Sephardim and Oriental Communities'', the party gained 3.5% of the vote and four seats in the elections for the first Knesset in 1949. Represented by Moshe Ben-Ami, Eliyahu Eliashar, Avraham Elmalih and

Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit ( he, בכור-שלום שטרית, 1895 – 28 January 1967) was an Israeli politician, minister and the only signatory of the Israeli declaration of independence to have been born in the country. He served as Minister o ...

, they joined

the government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

as a coalition partner of

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, with Sheetrit appointed Minister of Police. For the 1951 election, the party changed its name to ''The list of Sephardim and Oriental Communities, Old Timers and Immigrants''. However, they lost around half their share of the vote (1.8%) and half their seats, slumping to just two representatives. Only Eliashar retained his seat, with Binyamin Sasson taking the second. This time they did not join the government. On 10 September 1951 the party merged into the

General Zionists The General Zionists ( he, הַצִיּוֹנִים הַכְּלָלִיים, translit. ''HaTzionim HaKlaliym'') were a centrist Zionist movement and a political party in Israel. The General Zionists supported the leadership of Chaim Weizmann a ...

, then the second-largest party in the Knesset and briefly a member of the governing coalition that made up the fourth and fifth governments (though they were expelled from the sixth after abstaining from a motion of no-confidence). Some party members were not happy about joining the

and broke away to reform the party. They contested the 1955 elections with Eliashar as leader,Sephardim and Oriental Communities list (1955)
Israel Democracy Institute but failed to win a seat. Later on, the

merged with the Progressive Party to form the Liberal Party, which was briefly the third-largest party in Israel before merging again with

Herut Herut ( he, חֵרוּת, ''Freedom'') was the major conservative nationalist political party in Israel from 1948 until its formal merger into Likud in 1988. It was an adherent of Revisionist Zionism. History Herut was founded by Menachem Begin ...

to form Gahal, which eventually became

Election results

References

External links

Party history
Knesset website {{Israeli political parties Defunct political parties in Israel Zionist political parties in Israel General Zionism Mizrahi Jewish culture in Israel Sephardi Jewish culture in Israel