Mapam

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Mapam (Hebrew: מפ"ם) was a political party in Israel.

1 Name
2 History
3 Notes
4 See also

[edit] Name

As is the case with many political parties in Israel, Mapam is an acronym, standing in Hebrew for United Workers Party (Hebrew: מפלגת הפועלים המאוחדת, Mifleget HaPoalim HaMeukhedet).

[edit] History

Mapam was a descendant of the left wing of the Poale Zion (Workers of Zion) movement. It merged with HaShomer HaTzair ("Youth Guard") and, in 1948, Labour Unity; the latter included some of the right wing of Poale Zion, who had joined David Ben Gurion's Mapai but then broken back away. The party was originally Marxist-Zionist in its outlook, with a strong Stalinist policy, and represented the left-wing Kibbutz Artzi ("Nationwide Kibbutz") movement.

In the elections for the first Knesset, Mapam took 19 seats, making it the second largest party after Mapai. However, their pro-Soviet views did not endear them to Ben Gurion, and they were not included in the governing coalition. During the session they gained one seat when Eliezer Preminger joined after leaving Maki and then setting up his own party, the Hebrew Communists.

In the 1951 elections the party dropped to 15 seats and again were not included in the coalition. However, they did become the first Zionist party to have an Israeli Arab, Rostam Bastuni, representing them in the Knesset.

From Mapam's point of view, the most important event of the second Knesset were the Prague Trials of 1953, which severely shook the party's faith in the Soviet Union. The show trials in which mostly Jewish leaders of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia were purged, falsely implicated Mapam's envoy in Prague, Mordechai Oren, as part of a Zionist conspiracy. After the Prague Trials and later, Nikita Khrushchev's Secret Speech at the 20th Party Congress in the Soviet Union, Mapam moved away from some of their more radical left wing positions, and towards social democracy.

This created a split in the party. Avraham Berman, Rostam Bastuni and Moshe Sneh left the party and set up the Left Faction, whilst Hannah Lamdan and David Livschitz created Independent Labour Unity. Although Bastuni later returned to the party, Berman and Sneh eventually joined Maki and Lamdan and Livschitz joined Mapai. Four other party members left to recreate Labour Unity, though the Knesset speaker did not recognise the group as an independent party during the Knesset session. It also displeased the USSR, who described the party as “one of the most reactionary ones among the left socialist parties.”<ref>Mezhdunarodnaya Zizhn -- cited in edition Välispanoraam 1972, Tallinn, 1973, lk 147 (Foreign Panorama 1972)</ref>

Although it had been reduced to seven seats by the end of the second Knesset, the party picked up nine seats in the 1955 elections. Having effectively renounced the Soviet Union, Mapam were now included in Ben Gurion's coalitions for both the seventh and eighth governments. However, they were to blame for Ben Gurion's resignation and the collapse of the government on 5 July 1959 when they and Labour Unity voted against the government on the issue of selling arms to West Germany but refused to leave the coalition.

In the 1959 elections the party retained its nine seats, and despite their previous differences, were included in Ben Gurion's coalition.

In the 1961 elections they again won nine seats, but this time were not members of the governing coalition.

The 1965 elections saw the party lose a seat, dropping to eight mandates, but enter into the coalition government. During the Knesset session, the party joined with Mapai, Labour Unity and Rafi to form the Alignment, which went on to win the highest ever number of seats in the 1969 elections (56 out of 120), doubtlessly helped by the country's victory in the Six-Day War.

Mapam remained part of the Alignment until after the 1984 elections, when it broke away due to anger over Shimon Peres's decision to form a national unity government with Likud, taking five seat with it. However, in the 1988 elections the party won only three seats.

As a result of their declining support, the party joined with Ratz and Shinui to form Meretz, a new left-wing, social-democratic and pro-peace party, which became the fourth largest party in the Knesset in the 1992 elections.

In 1997 the merger into Meretz with Ratz and part of Shinui (most of its membership did not agree with the alliance and reformed as an independent party headed by Avraham Poraz) was formalised and Mapam ceased to exist. Meretz is now (as of 2006) Meretz-Yachad.

Prominent Mapam members have included Israel Bar-Yehuda, Meir Ya'ari, Moshe Erem, Yaakov Hazan, Mordechai Bentov, Mordechai Oren, Zvi Lurie, Chaim Shur, Hanan Rubin, Yair Tsaban, and Simha Flapan.