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Date: 2015-10-07; view: 514.

JEWISH HOME

A series of recent polls suggest that in the next election this right-wing, religious party led by Naftali Bennett, could take seats from the Likud party of Benjamin Netanyahu whom he previously served as chief of staff. Mr Bennett, who is 40, was in an elite army unit and is a high-tech entrepreneur.

• Leader: Naftali Bennett
• Founded: November 2008
• Politics: religious Zionist, modern Orthodox Judaism
• Number of members in 18th Knesset: 3

• Jewish Home home page

Jewish Home, or Habayit Hayehudi, strongly supports the settler movement and has several hard-line settlers on its list. It rejects the notion of an independent Palestinian state. Instead the party is running on a platform to annex 60% of the West Bank known as Area C, where all Jewish settlements are located and which currently falls under Israeli military control. It says Palestinians living there could take Israeli citizenship or move to the other Palestinian-governed 40% of the territory. Settlements are considered illegal under international law but Mr Bennett argues that criticism of them by Western powers is misguided.

Last month, Mr Bennett, who still acts as a reservist, generated controversy when he told Israel's Channel 2 that his "conscience" would not allow him to obey orders to evacuate settlements or outposts. Although he qualified his statement by saying he did not publicly call for disobeying orders, he later backtracked. At a rally he called for all political parties to sign a pledge never to evict Jews from their homes.

In his election campaign, Mr Bennett has complained about left-leaning media, condemned what he described as excessive activism of the courts in setting policy and pledged to stop illegal immigration. The party was originally formed by a merger of smaller religious parties and has since seen various divisions and shifts in alliances.