MAPAM

(Mifleget Poalim Hameuhedet—United Workers Party)

   Mapam was organized in 1948, when Hashomer Hatzair merged with radical elements from Ahdut Haavoda. It is a left-wing socialist-Zionist mixed Jewish-Arab political party. From its beginnings, the party was more Marxist than Mapai. The former Ahdut Haavoda members left in 1954 because of Mapam's pro-Soviet orientation and acceptance of Arabs as party members. Although the political party's domestic policy was essentially indistinguishable from Mapai's, Mapam's share of the vote in national elections declined steadily before it joined the Alignment for the 1969 Knesset election. Mapam ended its alliance with Labor in September 1984 over the issue of the formation of a Government of National Unity with Likud. Its longtime leader was Victor Shemtov.

   Drawing support primarily from the socialist Kibbutz Movement as well as segments of the Israeli Arab community, Mapam historically advocated a policy of compromise in relations with the Palestinians. Domestically, it championed freedom of religious expression among Israeli Jews and the extension of equal rights for all Israelis. In 1992, it joined with the Citizens' Rights and Peace Movement and Shinui to form the Meretz/Democratic Israel faction that won 12 seats in the 13th Knesset and participated in the coalition governments headed by Yitzhak Rabin (1992-95) and Shimon Peres (1995-96). Mapam and Meretz won 6 seats in the 16th Knesset (2003) and only 5 seats in the 17th Knesset (2006).