New Communist List

(RAKAH)

   Descended from the Socialist Workers' Party of Palestine (founded in 1919), the party was renamed the Communist Party of Palestine in 1921 and the Israel Communist Party (Maki) in 1948. A pro-Soviet, anti-Zionist group formed Rakah in 1965. It had both Jewish and Arab members and campaigned for a socialist system in Israel and a lasting peace between Israel and the Arab countries and the Palestinian Arab people. It favored full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, Israel's withdrawal from all Arab territories occupied since 1967, formation of a Palestinian Arab state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, recognition of the national rights of the state of Israel and of the Palestinian people, democratic rights and defense of working class interests, and an end of alleged discrimination against the Arab minority in Israel and against Sephardic (see ORIENTAL JEWS) Jewish communities. Rakah contested the 1984 Knesset election as the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash), an alliance with the Black Panther Movement of Sephardic Jews, winning four seats in the Knesset. It won one seat in the 1988 Knesset election, three in 1992, and five in 1996. The party's long-time secretary general Meir Wilner retired in the early 1990s. As a component of Hadash, it won three seats in the 15th Knesset (1999), 16th Knesset (2003), and 17th Knesset (2006).

   See also Political parties.