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Israel
Central Religious Camp
In 1988 Rabbi Yehuda Amital of Jerusalem formed a new moderate
religious party, the Central Religious Camp, in an attempt to
counteract the growing popularity of right-wing ultranationalist
religious parties. Rabbi Tovah Lichtenstein had the second position
on the party's Knesset list. The party failed, however, to gain
the minimum 1 percent of votes required for Knesset representation.
Right-Wing Ultranationalist Parties
Tehiya (Renaissance--see Appendix B), an ultranationalist party,
arose in 1979 in reaction to NRP and Likud support for the 1978
Camp David Accords and the 1979 Treaty of Peace Between Egypt
and Israel. The party consisted of religious and secular leaders
and activists of Gush Emunim and the Land of Israel Movement.
The leaders and parliamentary representatives of Tehiya were Yuval
Neeman, party chairman and former minister of science and technology
in the Likud-led cabinet (1981-84); Geula Cohen, formerly of Herut;
Rabbi Eliezer Waldman, head of the Kiryat Arba Yeshiva; Gershon
Shafet; and Kiryat Arba's ultranationalist attorney Eliakim Haetzni.
Former IDF Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan ranked among the party's
leaders until 1984, when he left to form his own list, Tsomet.
Tehiya's platform advocated the eventual imposition of Israeli
sovereignty over the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and the transfer
of the Palestinian inhabitants of these territories to Arab countries.
In the 1984 elections, Tehiya gained five Knesset seats, an increase
of two from 1981. In 1988, however, Tehiya lost two seats to the
newly formed Tsomet and Moledet parties.
Tsomet (Crossroads) was an extreme right-wing ultranationalist
party founded in 1984 by Eitan. It gained two seats in the 1988
Knesset elections.
Moledet (Homeland) ran in 1988 on an extremist platform advocating
the forcible "transfer" of Palestinian Arabs from the West Bank
to Arab states. Led by retired IDF General Rehavam (Ghandi) Zeevi,
the party won two seats in the 1988 Knesset elections.
Kach (Thus), another ultranationalist party, came into being
around Rabbi Meir Kahane, an American-born right-wing Orthodox
extremist. Characterized as an internal dictatorship under Kahane,
Kach has advocated the forcible expulsion of Arabs from Israel
and the occupied territories, followed by the imposition of Israeli
sovereignty there. A number of second-echelon party leaders have
been implicated in Kach-supported terrorist activities. A terrorist
attack on a bus carrying Arab passengers on Mount Hebron, near
the town of Hebron, caused the imprisonment of Yehuda Richter,
in second place on the Kach Knesset list. Avner Ozen, number four
on Kach's 1984 list, was also imprisoned on terrorist charges.
To counteract Kach's inflammatory political activities, in 1988
Likud and the Citizens' Rights Movement succeeded in passing a
Basic Law empowering the Central Elections Board to prohibit a
party advocating racism from contesting parliamentary elections
in Israel and Kach was outlawed from participating in the November
1988 elections. Kach, largely funded by American supporters, had
gained one seat in the 1984 elections after several earlier unsuccessful
attempts to enter the Knesset.
Data as of December 1988
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