General Zionists ציונים כלליים | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | |
| Founder | Yehoshua Sofersky |
| Founded | 1922 |
| Dissolved | 8 May 1961 |
| Merged into | Liberal Party |
| Headquarters | Tel Aviv, Israel |
| Newspaper | HaBoker |
| Ideology | |
| Political position |
|
| Most MKs | 23 (1951) |
| Election symbol | |
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TheGeneral Zionists (Hebrew:הַצִיּוֹנִים הַכְּלָלִיים,romanized: HaTzionim HaKlaliym) were a centristZionist movement and apolitical party in Israel. The General Zionists supported the leadership ofChaim Weizmann and their views were largely colored by central European culture.[2] The party was considered to have bothconservative andliberal wings,[3][4][5] and is one of the ancestors of the modern-dayLikud.
The term "General Zionism" initially referred to the beliefs of the majority of members of theZionist Organization (ZO) who had not joined a specificfaction or party and belonged to their countrywide Zionist organizations only.[6] The term was first used at the 1907Zionist Congress to describe the delegates who were affiliated with neitherLabor Zionism norreligious Zionism.[7]
In 1922, various non-aligned groups and individuals established the Organization of General Zionists as a non-ideological party within the Zionist Organization (later the World Zionist Organization) at a time when the Zionist movement was becoming polarized betweenLabour Zionists andRevisionist Zionism. Eventually the General Zionists became identified with Europeanliberal andmiddle class beliefs inprivate property andcapitalism.
In 1929, the General Zionists established a world organization, holding their first conference in 1931. At this conference, rifts opened up between the conservative right wing and those who held more moderate views.[2] They were divided over social issues, economics andlabour issues (e.g. theHistadrut). The "General Zionists A" favored the economic policies of Labour Zionism and were supportive ofChaim Weizmann's compromising approach to relations with the British. The "General Zionists B" were skeptical of socialism and more outspoken against British policy in Palestine.[8]
After the independence of the State of Israel, the gap between the two groups widened. The General Zionists A helped form theProgressive Party, which won five seats in 1949 Knesset elections and entered the Mapai-led governing coalition. The General Zionists B, running as the General Zionists, won seven seats and chose to remain in the opposition.[8] In the years following the establishment of the state ofIsrael in 1948, the General Zionists moved towards the right in opposition to the hegemony ofMapai and other Labour Zionist movements in Israeli politics.
The General Zionist party supported private enterprise, the suspension of state support to collective institutions, and the termination of theHistadrut's control of the economy. However, it favored leaving the Histadrut with state control over several aspects of economy and welfare. It also supported a unified system of education (as it contributed to the passage of the 1953 State Education Law) and a written constitution to enshrine democratic freedom and civil rights. It wassecularist, though not as vocally so as the Progressive Party.[9]
In 1936 the General Zionists established a daily newspaper,HaBoker, which was edited for the first ten years of its existence byPeretz Bernstein. It ceased publication in 1965.
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The General Zionists entered theelections for the first Knesset in 1949. They won 5.2% of the vote and seven seats, and were not included in either ofDavid Ben-Gurion's coalition governments.
The1951 elections were a huge success, with the party winning 20 seats, making it the second largest in theKnesset. The party was enlarged soon after the elections when theSephardim and Oriental Communities party and theYemenite Association merged into it (though the one Yemenite Association MK left the party again before the end of the session). Although it was not included in the coalition for the third government, it was brought into the fourth government after Ben-Gurion had sacked theUltra-orthodox parties,Agudat Yisrael andPoalei Agudat Yisrael, over thereligious education dispute that had brought down the previous government. It was also included inMoshe Sharett's fifth government, but not the sixth.
In the1955 elections the party slumped to 13 seats, and were not included in either of the third Knesset's coalition governments.
A further slump to eight seats in the1959 elections and exclusion from the coalition made the party rethink its strategy. Eventually the party decided to merge with the 6-seatProgressive Party to form theLiberal Party. Nevertheless, the party helped bring down the government in 1961 when it andHerut tabled amotion of no confidence in the government over theLavon Affair.
In the1961 elections the newIsrael Liberal Party won 17 seats, making it the third largest in the Knesset. During the session, ten MKs (mostly former General Zionists) merged with theright-wingHerut to formGahal while the other seven (most from the Progressive Party) set up theIndependent Liberals. Gahal later becameLikud.
| Leader | Took office | Left office | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | Peretz Bernstein | 1949 | 1961 |
| 2 |  | Israel Rokach | 1949 | 1955 |
| 3 |  | Yosef Sapir | 1955 | 1961 |
| Election | Leader | Votes | % | Place | Seats won | +/− |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1931 | Peretz Bernstein | 2,841 | 5.74 | 4th | 5 / 71 | new |
| 1944 | 4,704 | 2.37 | 7th | 4 / 173 |
| Election | Leader | Votes | % | Place | Seats won | +/− |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1949 | Peretz Bernstein Israel Rokach | 22,661 | 5.2 | 5th | 7 / 120 | |
| 1951 | 111,394 | 16.2 | 2nd | 20 / 120 |  13 | |
| 1955 | 87,099 | 10.2 | 3rd | 13 / 120 |  7 | |
| 1959 | Peretz Bernstein Yosef Sapir | 59,700 | 6.2 | 5th | 8 / 120 | 5 |
| 1961 | Part of theLiberal Party | 7 / 120 | 1 | |||
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