Ahdut HaAvoda

Ahdut HaAvoda ( _he. אחדות העבודה, lit. "Labour Unity") was a political party in Israel and is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Israeli Labor Party.

History

The original Ahdut HaAvoda party was founded in Ottoman Palestine before World War I and was headed by David Ben-Gurion. In 1930 it merged with the avowedly anti-socialist Hapoel Hatzair to form Mapai, and effectively disappeared.

The party was resurrected in 1944 after a split from Mapai. In 1948 it united with Mapam and fought the 1949 and 1951 elections as part of the party.

However, during the second Knesset Moshe Aram, Yisrael Bar-Yehuda, Yitzhak Ben-Aharon and Aharon Zisling broke away from Mapam under the name Ahdut HaAvoda - Poale Zion. However, they were not recognised by the speaker of the Knesset as an independent party.

The 1955 elections were fought as Ahdut HaAvoda and the party managed to win 10 seats, making them the fifth largest in the Knesset. They formed part of both of Ben-Gurion's governing coalitions during the third Knesset. Party member Nahum Nir was appointed Knesset speaker (the only time a speaker has not been a member of the ruling party), Bar-Yehuda was made Minister of Internal Affairs, and Moshe Carmel became Minister of Transportation. However, they party were ultimately responsible for bringing down the government in 1959 when they and fellow coalition partners Mapam voted against the government on the issue of selling arms to West Germany and refused to leave the coalition.

In the 1959 elections the party was reduced to seven seats. They again joined the coalition government until its collapse in 1961, with Ben-Aharon becoming Minister of Transportation. The 1961 elections saw them gain one seat, and become part of all three coalition governments of the fifth Knesset with Yigal Allon becoming Minister of Labour and Ben-Aharon, Bar-Yehuda and Carmel all acting as Minister of Transportation during the session.

For the 1965 elections, the party allied with Mapai to form the Labor Alignment, which won 45 seats. On 23 January 1968 the party merged with Mapai and Rafi to for the Israeli Labor Party and ceased to exist as an individual entity.

External links

* [http://www.knesset.gov.il/faction/eng/FactionPage_eng.asp?PG=80 Ahdut HaAvoda - Poalei Zion] Knesset website