Herut – The National Movement ( he, חרות – התנועה הלאומית, ''Herut – HaTnu'a HaLeumit''), commonly known as just Herut (), was a minor

right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...

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 ...

. Though it saw itself as the ideological successor to the historical

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 ...

party (which 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 Sharon ...

) it was a new and separate party. It participated in the

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

and 2006 elections.

Background

The party was formed on 23 February 1999 when

Benny Begin Ze'ev Binyamin "Benny" Begin, (; born 1 March 1943) is an Israeli geologist and politician. He was a member of the Knesset for New Hope, having previously served as a member for Likud and Herut – The National Movement. He is the son of former ...

Michael Kleiner Michael Kleiner ( he, מיכאל קליינר; born 4 April 1948) is an Israeli politician and was the leader of Herut – The National Movement He is currently the President of the Supreme Court of the Israeli Likud party. Biography Michael Kl ...

and

David Re'em David Re'em (; born 28 March 1953) is a former Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Likud and Herut – The National Movement between 1996 and 1999. Biography Born in Haifa, Re'em studied law for a year at university. He ...

broke away from

during the fourteenth Knesset. The breakaway was the result of disagreements with Likud leader

Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (; ; born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who served as the ninth prime minister of Israel from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021. He is currently serving as Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of ...

over the

Wye River Memorandum The Wye River Memorandum was an agreement negotiated between Israel and the Palestinian Authority at a summit in Wye River, Maryland, U.S., held from 15–23 October 1998. The Memorandum aimed to resume the implementation of the 1995 Interim ...

and the

Hebron Agreement The Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron, also known as the Hebron Protocol or Hebron Agreement, was signed on 17 January 1997 by Israel, represented by Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Palestine Liberation Organiza ...

, which had ceded land to the

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 ...

. Though not an MK at the time, former Prime Minister and Herut leader

Yitzhak Shamir Yitzhak Shamir ( he, יצחק שמיר, ; born Yitzhak Yezernitsky; October 22, 1915 – June 30, 2012) was an Israeli politician and the seventh Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms, 1983–1984 and 1986–1992. Before the establishment ...

backed the new party. Herut participated in the

1999 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1999. * 1999 electoral calendar Africa * 1999 Algerian presidential election * 1999 Botswana general election * 1999 Beninese parliamentary election * 1999 Central African Republic presidential elect ...

as part of the National Union, a right-wing alliance of itself,

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 Sprinzak. ...

and Tkuma with Begin at its head. In the simultaneous election for

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

, Begin had originally planned to stand, but dropped out three days before the election to avoid splitting the right-wing vote between himself and Netanyahu (though it didn't help, as Netanyahu lost to

Ehud Barak Ehud Barak ( he-a, אֵהוּד בָּרָק, Ehud_barak.ogg, link=yes, born Ehud Brog; 12 February 1942) is an Israeli general and politician who served as the tenth prime minister from 1999 to 2001. He was leader of the Labor Party until Jan ...

by more than 12%). In the

Knesset The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with ...

election, the National Union won only 3% of the vote and four seats. The party's poor performance led to Begin resigning as head of the party and retiring from politics before the Knesset term began, and Herut's one allocated seat was taken by Kleiner. On 1 February 2000, Kleiner pulled out of the National Union, establishing Herut as an independent party in the Knesset. In the 2003 elections the party ran alone. It chose the

ballot letters Elections in Israel are based on nationwide proportional representation. The electoral threshold is currently set at 3.25%, with the number of seats a party receives in the Knesset being proportional to the number of votes it receives. The Knesse ...

נץ, meaning "hawk", and used the slogan "the 'hawkiest' on the right". Kleiner led the list, with

Baruch Marzel Baruch Meir Marzel ( he, ברוך מאיר מרזל, born 23 April 1959) is an Israeli politician and activist. He is an Orthodox Jew originally from Boston who now lives in the Jewish community of Hebron in Tel Rumeida with his wife and nine ch ...

, a former member of the outlawed Kach party taking second place. The party won 36,202 votes, though it was only 1.1% of the total, and not enough to pass the 1.5%

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 ...

. Soon after Marzel left to found his own party, the

Jewish National Front The Jewish National Front ( he, חֲזִית יְהוּדִית לְאוּמִּית, ''Hazit Yehudit LeUmit''), commonly known in Israel by its Hebrew acronym, Hayil (Hebrew: ), is a religious far-right2006 elections, again with the letters נץ. This time Kleiner was joined by veteran activists

Elie Yossef Elie and Earlsferry is a coastal town and former royal burgh in Fife, and parish, Scotland, situated within the East Neuk beside Chapel Ness on the north coast of the Firth of Forth, eight miles east of Leven. The burgh comprised the linked vi ...

and Israel Cohen. The main campaign message was "Evacuate-Compensate the Palestinians" (, ''Pitzui-Pinui laFalestinim''). Yana Chudriker, an immigrant from Ukraine and beauty queen of Israel (1993) was assigned number 4 on the party list. The campaign presented Chudriker wearing a

burqa A burqa or a burka, or , and ur, , it is also transliterated as burkha, bourkha, burqua or burqu' or borgha' and is pronounced natively . It is generally pronounced in the local variety of Arabic or variety of Persian, which varies. Examp ...

as a warning against the demographic threat of Arabs to Israel and the slogan was "The Demographics Will Poison Us" (in Hebrew the words "poison" (ra'al, רעל) and "burqa" (r'ala, רעלה) sound similar). The poster's publication resulted in

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

Menachem Mazuz Menachem "Meni" Mazuz ( he, מְנַחֵם "מֶנִי" מָזוּז; born April 30, 1955) is an Israeli jurist and Supreme Court of Israel, Supreme Court justice, who served as the Attorney General of Israel, Israeli Attorney General in the years ...

ordering the police to investigate the party for inciting racism. The party's television campaign also drew criticism, and segments were removed by the Central election committee. Committee chairman and

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

Judge

Dorit Beinisch Dorit Beinisch ( he, דורית ביניש; born February 28, 1942) was the 9th president of the Supreme Court of Israel. Appointed on September 14, 2006, after the retirement of Aharon Barak, she served in this position until February 28, 2012 ...

asserted that the removed segment from the advertisement clearly made reference to a blatantly racist slogan and retorted that if aired, would most probably hurt the feelings of the Arab population. In the election itself, the party won just 2,387 votes—0.07%, well below the new

of 2%. Prior to the

2009 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2009. * Electoral calendar 2009 * 2009 United Nations Security Council election Caribbean * 2009 Antiguan general election * 2009 Aruban general election * 2009 Caymanian constitutional referendu ...

, Kleiner and Begin rejoined the Likud slate. Herut did not run in the 2009 elections or subsequently and is considered defunct.

References

External links

Herut - National Movement (Herut)
Knesset website {{DEFAULTSORT:Herut - The National Movement Defunct political parties in Israel Political parties established in 1999 Zionist political parties in Israel 1999 establishments in Israel Likud breakaway groups Political parties disestablished in 2009 2009 disestablishments in Israel Revisionist Zionism Right-wing politics in Israel Right-wing parties