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Date: 2015-10-07; view: 538.

LABOUR PARTY

After a poor show in the last election when it was reduced to 13 seats, Israel's Labour party is undergoing a revival under new leader Shelly Yachimovich. She took over one year ago after the Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, left his post and the party to form Independence with four other MKs.

• Leader: Shelly Yachimovich
• Founded: 1968
• Politics: social democratic Zionist ideology
• Number of members in 18th Knesset: 8

• Labour Party home page

Ms Yachimovich, a former journalist and talk-show host, has promised wide-scale social and economic reforms. The Labour list for the upcoming poll includes activists who rose to prominence during the mass economic protests that swept Israel in the summer of 2011, as well as party veterans. Labour says that in government it would end privatisation of public infrastructure and social services and increase the minimum wage. Concerning the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Labour says it will seek a stable peace agreement that would include withdrawal from some Jewish settlements in occupied territory.

The party said it would not join a Likud-led coalition after the next elections. Instead, during the campaign, Ms Yachimovich met the head of Hatenua, Tzipi Livni and Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid to discuss a unified centre-left alternative to another Netanyahu-led government. The talks failed to yield results.

Labour was established in 1968 when three socialist labour parties joined together, including Mapai, which had controlled the Israeli government since the state was created in 1948. It went on to dominate Israeli politics until its rival, Likud, emerged on the scene and went on to lead its first coalition government in 1977. For decades the two parties alternated in power, although they were occasionally forced to join forces in 'unity governments'.