Union of Right-wing Parties איחוד מפלגות הימין | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Rafi Peretz |
| Founded | 21 February 2019 |
| Dissolved | 14 July 2020 |
| Headquarters | Airport City,Israel[1] |
| Ideology | Religious Zionism Religious conservatism National conservatism Social conservatism Orthodox interests Settler interests Factions: Ultranationalism |
| Political position | Right-wing tofar-right |
| Religion | Orthodox Judaism |
| National affiliation | Yamina (2019, 2020) |
| Member parties | Jewish Home National Union Otzma Yehudit (2019) |
| Election symbol | |
| טב | |
| Website | |
| hayemin | |
TheUnion of Right-wing Parties (Hebrew:איחוד מפלגות הימין,Ihud Miflagot HaYamin) was a short-livedelectoral alliance ofright-wing tofar-rightreligious Zionist parties which includedHaBayit HaYehudi,Otzma Yehudit, andTkuma. The list was created ahead of theApril 2019 Israeli legislative election[2] afterBenjamin Netanyahu, urgedThe Jewish Home to acceptOtzma Yehudit andTkuma as part of its list for the April election, to avoid loss of votes by the right-wing bloc and International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Israeli officials.[3][4][5][6][7][8] The alliance gained five seats in the April election.[9]
Otzma Yehudit left the union on 5 July 2019, citing disagreements with the party, such as the refusal of URWP members to resign to allow Itamar Ben-Gvir to become a Knesset member. In addition, Otzma was unwilling to leaveBaruch Marzel andBenzi Gopstein off the electoral slate, asRafi Peretz demanded.[10]
For theSeptember 2019 election, the URWP ran on a joint list, calledYamina,[11] with theNew Right,[12] to get both to pass the 3.25% threshold to enter the Knesset, after the New Right failed to pass the threshold in the April election.[13] The parties later split,[14] though Yamina re-formed for the2020 Israeli legislative election.[15]
In January 2019,Tkuma andOtzma entered talks to form a joint list;[16] however, the talks ultimately failed on 11 February 2019.[17]
On 12 February 2019, Otzma Yehudit entered talks with the Jewish Home party to reach an agreement on a joint list.[18]
On 15 February 2019, Tkuma and the Jewish Home party agreed to a form a list again, with Tkuma getting every other seat on the list.[19]
On 19 February 2019, it was reported that negotiations between Otzma Yehudit and the Jewish Home were deadlocked.[20]
On 20 February 2019, both Otzma Yehudit and the Jewish Home agreed to terms to form a list, after Netanyahu had promised the Jewish Home ministerial positions in exchange for uniting with Otzma Yehudit.[21] In order to facilitate this deal, Netanyahu also gave Jewish Home candidateEli Ben-Dahan a position on theLikud party list, and formed a surplus-vote agreement between Likud and the URWP.[22]
The party attempted to getYachad to join the technical list, but negotiations failed, due to the rabbi of Yachad, RabbiMeir Mazuz, rejecting it,[23] althoughEli Yishai, the head of Yachad, has claimed thatAryeh Deri vetoed Yishai's potential ministerial appointment.[24]
Otzma Yehudit announced on 25 June that it would leave the technical bloc over the refusal of the Jewish Home party to seatItamar Ben-Gvir in the Knesset using theNorwegian law.[25]
On 29 July 2019, the URWP and theNew Right reached a final agreement on joint run, with the New Right'sAyelet Shaked leading the joint list, which is[26] namedYamina.[27]
On 15 September, two days before the election, Yamina filed a motion to split back to the New Right andJewish Home–National Union. Shaked made a last ditch attempt to keep them together, without success.[28]
Due to theKahanist ideology of Otzma Yehudit, there was controversy surrounding Netanyahu attempting to get Otzma Yehudit to run on a list with the Jewish Home party, which led to it being condemned by theAmerican Jewish Committee,[29] theAnti-Defamation League,[30] and theAmerican Israel Public Affairs Committee.[31] Yifat Erlich, who was formerly on the slate for The Jewish Home, left the party over the union with Otzma Yehudit.[32]
Michael Ben-Ari, who was placed fifth on the URWP list as part of Otzma Yehudit, was banned from running for the Knesset on 17 March 2019 by theSupreme Court of Israel.[33]
| Leader | Took office | Left office | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Rafi Peretz | 2019 | 2020 | |
| Election | Leader | Votes | % | Seats | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2019 | Rafi Peretz | 159,468 (#8) | 3.70% | 5 / 120 | Caretaker government |
| Year | Members | Total |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Rafi Peretz,Bezalel Smotrich,Moti Yogev,Ofir Sofer,Idit Silman | 5 |
