Independent Liberals (Israel)

Defunct Israeli political party

Not to be confused with Independence (Israeli political party), Independent Centre, or Independent Socialist Faction.

Independent Liberals

ליברלים עצמאיים

President| Pinchas Rosen
Moshe Kol
Gideon Hausner
Yitzhak Artzi
Zvi Nir
Founded| 16 March 1965
Dissolved| 1992
Split from| Liberal Party
Merged into| Labor Party
Ideology| Liberalism
Social liberalism[1][2]
Progressivism[1]
Secularism[3]
Political position| Center
International affiliation| Liberal International[4]
Most MKs| 7 (1965)
Fewest MKs| 1 (1977–1981;1984-1988)
Election symbol

* Politics of Israel
* Political parties
* Elections

The Independent Liberals (Hebrew: ליברלים עצמאיים, Libralim Atzma'im) were a political party in Israel that existed between 1965 and 1992.

## History

[edit]

The Independent Liberals party was formed during the fifth Knesset in the aftermath of the merger of the Liberal Party and Herut. Seven of the 17 Liberal Party MKs led by former Minister of Justice, Pinchas Rosen, disagreed with the merger and founded a new party in response. Almost all of the dissenters were former members of the Progressive Party, which had merged with the General Zionists to create the Liberal Party during the fourth Knesset, and also included Rachel Cohen-Kagan, formerly an MK for Women's International Zionist Organization.

The party agreed to have the Israeli participation in Liberal International shared equally with the Liberal Party.[5]

Its constituency was overwhelmingly of European origin.[6]

In their first electoral test, the 1965 legislative election, the Independent Liberals won 5 seats and joined Levi Eshkol and Golda Meir's coalition governments, with Moshe Kol appointed Minister of Tourism and Minister of Development. During the sixth Knesset they lost one seat when Yizhar Harari left the party to join the Alignment.

In the 1969 election the party won four seats and were again included in Meir's coalition government. Kol retained his post as Minister of Tourism. The party also won four seats in the 1973 election and were included in both of Meir and Yitzhak Rabin's coalition governments. Kol again retained his post as Minister of Tourism and Gideon Hausner was made a Minister without Portfolio. However, they lost one seat when Hillel Seidel defected to Likud.

The 1977 election saw the party win only one seat, barely crossing the 1% electoral threshold (they received 1.3% of the vote). The party was also excluded from Menachem Begin's right-wing coalition. The 1981 election saw the party fail to cross the electoral threshold and disappear from the Knesset. For the 1984 election the party ran as a faction of the Alignment, with Independent Liberals leader Yitzhak Artzi given 44th place on the Alignment electoral list.[4][7]

On 15 March 1988, near the end of the 11th Knesset, Artzi left the Alignment and joined the Shinui parliamentary group.[4][8][9] In the 1988 election, the Independent Liberals ran together with Shinui and the Liberal Center (a group of former Likud Liberals); the three groups indicated they would cooperate rather than formally merge, pending the 1988 campaign, at which a combined list under the Shinui–Center Movement banner was presented.[10][11][12][13] However, the list won only two seats and none were for Independent Liberal members.[14][15] The Independent Liberal party merged with the Israeli Labor Party in 1992.[14]

## Leaders

[edit]

Leader  | Took office  | Left office

|
|

|  | Pinchas Rosen | 1965  | 1968
|  | Moshe Kol | 1968  | 1977
|  | Gideon Hausner | 1977  | 1981
|  | Yitzhak Artzi | 1981  | 1988
|  | Zvi Nir | 1988  | 1992

## Election results

[edit]

Election  | Leader  | Votes  | %  | Position  | Seats  | +/–  | Outcome

|
|
|
|
|
|
|

1965 | Pinchas Rosen | 45,299  | 3.75  |  6th  |

5 / 120

| –  | Coalition
1969 | Moshe Kol | 43,933  | 3.21  |  5th  |

4 / 120

|  1  | Coalition
1973 | 56,560  | 3.61  |  5th  |

4 / 120

|  | Coalition
1977 | Gideon Hausner | 20,384  | 1.17  |  13th  |

1 / 120

|  3  | Opposition
1981 | Yitzhak Artzi | 11,764  | 0.61  |  12th  |

0 / 120

|  1  | Extraparliamentary
1984 | Part of the Alignment |

1 / 120

|  1  | Coalition
1988 | Zvi Nir | Part of Centre-Shinui |

0 / 120

|  1  | Extraparliamentary

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Goldstein, Amir (Spring 2011). ""We Have a Rendezvous With Destiny"—The Rise and Fall of the Liberal Alternative". Israel Studies. 16 (1): 27, 32, 47, 49. doi:10.2979/isr.2011.16.1.26. S2CID 143487617. "Thus, the PP continued to represent mostly white collar and government workers, intellectuals, and the labor intelligentsia, all of whom favored the social liberalism, broadly-based universal views, and social and religious pluralism that the party stood for.4(27); Kol wrote to Goldmann...: 'But the party must be founded on a clear ideological basis, and no such basis exists between our progressive humanistic liberalism and Herut.'20(32); Kol emphasized that, 'The Herut Movement and social liberalism cannot dwell together in the same house.'(47); The PP, renamed the 'Independent Liberal Party,' resumed its progressive activity by trying to influence government policy—even if only marginally—from within the Labor camp, and affiliating itself with the ruling party.(49)"
2. ^ "Translations on Near East and North Africa, No. 1635: Background to May 1977 General Elections". U.S. Joint Publications Research Service (68874): 13. 4 April 1977. "The liberalism of Independent Liberals is in the spirit of the social humanism of the 20th Century."
3. ^ Ervin Birnbaum (1970). The Politics of Compromise: State and Religion in Israel. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. p. 66. ISBN 08386-7567-0. "The ILP is strongly secularist and is a staunch foe of religious encroachment and domination in the country."
4. ^ a b c Encyclopedia Judaica. Vol. 9\. 2007. p. 771\. "The Independent Liberal Party was affiliated with the Liberal International. In the elections to the Eleventh Knesset in 1984 the Independent Liberals ran within the Alignment list, and its representative, Yitzhak Arzi was elected. Towards the end of the Eleventh Knesset Arzi left the Alignment and joined the Shinui parliamentary group. Towards the end of the 1980s the Independent Liberals ceased to exist."
5. ^ Julie Smith (1997). A Sense of Liberty: The History of the Liberal International, 1847-1997. Liberal International. p. 45\. "Contacts with Israeli Liberals were complicated by domestic party divisions within the Israeli Party. LI had contacts with the Progressive Party and the General Zionist Party in the 1950s; a united Liberal Party was created in 1961 and joined LI. Then in 1965, following further domestic political change, the party split and the two offshoots, the Liberal Party (formerly the General Zionists) and the Independent Liberal Party (formerly Progressives), agreed that Israeli participation should be shared equally between them."
6. ^ U.O. Schmelz, Sergio DellaPergola, and Uri Avner (1990). "Ethnic Differences Among Israeli Jews: A New Look" (PDF). American Jewish Yearbook: 85, 95. Retrieved 2021-07-09.`{{cite journal}}`: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
7. ^ "The Jerusalem Post Magazine". 1985. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
8. ^ "The Israeli Elections: 27 Parties of All Kinds Running (part 1 of a Series)". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 1988-10-24.
9. ^ Mergers and Splits Among Parliamentary Groups
10. ^ Banks, Arthur S. (1991). "Center Movement". Political Handbook of the World: 1991. CSA Publications. ISBN 9780933199071. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
11. ^ Susan Hattis Rolef. "Shinui". Encyclopedia Judaica via Encyclopedia.com (2nd ed.). Retrieved 2021-07-09.
12. ^ Bernard Reich & David H. Goldberg (2016). Historical Dictionary of Israel (3rd ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. p. 115\. ISBN 9781442271852. "CENTER-SHINUI MOVEMENT. A political bloc made up of three political parties: Shinui, the Independent Liberals (Haliberalim Haatzmaim), and the Liberal Center."
13. ^ "The Israeli Elections: The Parties of the Left" (PDF). Jewish Telegraphic Agency. October 27, 1998. "CENTER MOVEMENT-SHINUI. This is another Labor satellite party, non-Socialist on economic issues, thoroughly moderate on the issues of peace and the territories."; [1]
14. ^ a b Shmuel Sandler, M. Ben Mollov & Jonathan Rynhold, ed. (2005). Israel at the Polls, 2003. Routledge. p. 95\. ISBN 9781136828072. "The Independent Liberal party survived as an independent party from 1965 until 1981; its representative participated in the Labour list in 1984; it formed together with Shinui the Shinui-Centre party in the 1988 elections, but did not succeed in winning a seat in the Knesset; and in 1992 it merged with the Labour party."
15. ^ Arthur S. Banks & Thomas C. Muller, ed. (1998). Political Handbook of the World: 1998. Springer. p. 458\. ISBN 9781349149513.

## External links

[edit]

* Independent Liberals Knesset website

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