Ratz (political party)

Movement for Civil Rights and Peace

התנועה לזכויות האזרח ולשלום‎
Movement for Civil Rights and Peace התנועה לזכויות האזרח ולשלום‎
Leader	Shulamit Aloni; Yossi Sarid; Gabi Deus (de jure)
Founded	1973
Dissolved	1997 (de facto)
Split from	Alignment
Merged into	Meretz
Ideology	Liberal socialism; Civil libertarianism; Anti-clericalism; Green politics;
Political position	Left-wing
Most MKs	6 (1992)
Election symbol
	רצ‎
	Politics of Israel; Political parties; Elections;

Ratz (Hebrew: רָצ), officially the Movement for Civil Rights and Peace (Hebrew: הַתְּנוּעָה לִזְכוּיוֹת הָאֶזְרָח וְלַשָּׁלוֹם‎, HaTnua'a LeZkhuyot HaEzrah VeLaShalom) was a left-wing political party in Israel that focused on human rights, civil rights, and women's rights.^[7]^[8]^[9] It was active from 1973 until its formal merger into Meretz in 1997. However, it remains a registered political party.

History

The Movement for Civil Rights and Peace was formed in 1973 by Shulamit Aloni, a former MK for the Alignment, 48 hours after she had left the party. As a member of the Israeli peace camp it opposed the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza strip and called for a peace settlement with the Palestine Liberation Organization from its birth. The party advocated secularism, the separation of religion and state, and civil rights, most notably women's rights, a topic that was very close to Aloni. It was also a notable fighter against corruption and for a written constitution, and Aloni was the initiator of the Knesset sub-committee for basic laws (Israel's equivalent of a constitution). For a while it also supported electoral reform.

In its first test, the 1973 elections, the party won 2.2% of the vote and three seats in the Knesset, which were taken by Aloni, new American immigrant Marcia Freedman, and Boaz Moav. The party soon gained the popular name Ratz, as it used the letters Resh-Tzadik on the election ballot paper. Following Golda Meir's resignation, the party joined Yitzhak Rabin's government and Aloni served as a minister without portfolio. This was one of the few periods in Israel's political history when no religious parties were part of the coalition. The arrangement lasted for a few months only and when the National Religious Party joined the coalition, Ratz left it.

In 1975 the party merged with Aryeh Eliav, an independent MK who had broken away from the Alignment, to form a new party, Ya'ad – Civil Rights Movement. However, it broke up the following year, and Aloni and Moaz reformed Ratz. Freedman did not return, instead forming the Social-Democratic Faction (later renamed the Independent Socialist Faction) with Eliav, and then breaking away again to form the Women's Party prior to the 1977 elections. Also prior to the 1977 elections, the Independent Socialist Faction merged with several other small left-wing parties (Moked, Meri and the Black Panthers) to form the Left Camp of Israel.

Ratz performed poorly in the 1977 elections, winning only one seat, which Aloni took. The 1981 elections were a repeat, with only Aloni representing the party in the Knesset. During the Knesset session she merged the party into the Alignment, but then broke away again before the term ended.

Before the 1984 elections the Left Camp of Israel merged into Ratz in a one-to-three ratio, bringing with them Ran Cohen among others. The elections were an improvement on the previous two, and saw the party win three seats. During the Knesset session, the party gained another two seats when Yossi Sarid and Mordechai Virshubski joined, defecting from the Alignment and Shinui respectively. The party retained its five-seat strength in the 1988 elections.

Prior to the 1992 elections the party formed an alliance with Mapam and Shinui named Meretz, whilst keeping their independent status within the union. The new party was a success, winning 12 seats, two more than the parties had held in the previous Knesset. Prior to the 1996 elections, Aloni finally lost the leadership of the party, defeated by Sarid in internal elections. She retired from politics immediately. In 1997 the merger was made official (though several Shinui members led by Avraham Poraz broke away to reform as an independent party, whilst David Zucker became an independent MK), and Ratz effectively ceased to exist. However, it remained a registered political party and submitted financial reports to the Party Registrar in 2010 and 2013.

Election results

Election	Leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Status
1973	Shulamit Aloni	35,023	2.2	3 / 120	New	Opposition (1973–1974)
						Government (1974)
						Opposition (1974-1977)
1977		20,621	1.2	1 / 120	2	Opposition
1981		27,921	1.4	1 / 120		Opposition
1984		49,698	2.4	3 / 120	2	Opposition
1988		97,513	4.3	5 / 120	2	Opposition
1992		Part of Meretz		6 / 120	1	Government
1996	Yossi Sarid	Part of Meretz		4 / 120	2	Opposition

Knesset members

Knesset (MKs)	Knesset Members
8th (3−1)	Shulamit Aloni, Boaz Moav − Marcia Freedman (to the Social-Democratic Faction)
9th (1)	Shulamit Aloni
10th (1)	Shulamit Aloni
11th (3+2)	Shulamit Aloni, Mordechai Bar-On (replaced by David Zucker), Ran Cohen + Yossi Sarid (from the Alignment) + Mordechai Virshubski (from Shinui)
12th (5)	Shulamit Aloni, Ran Cohen, Yossi Sarid, Mordechai Virshubski, David Zucker
13th (6 out of 12)	Shulamit Aloni, Ran Cohen, David Zucker, Yossi Sarid, Naomi Chazan, Binyamin Temkin
14th (4 out of 9)	Yossi Sarid, Ran Cohen, David Zucker, Naomi Chazan

References

^ "The Left". The Jerusalem Post. 1999. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
^ Chad Atkinson (2010). Dangerous Democracies and Partying Prime Ministers. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 53. ISBN 9780739133613. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
^ Reich, Bernard; Goldberg, David H. (2008). Historical Dictionary of Israel. Scarecrow Press. pp. 35, 112–13. ISBN 9780810864030. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
^ Frank Tachau (1994). Political Parties of the Middle East and North Africa. Mansell Publishing. ISBN 978-0720122367. CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT (Rotz). This radical, dovish, and anticlerical party was founded in 1973 by Shulamit Aloni, a noted civil rights activist, who failed to win renomination on the Labor Party* ticket.
^ Daniel Judah Elazar (1992). Shmuel Sandler (ed.). Who's the boss in Israel: Israel at the polls, 1988-89. Wayne State University Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-0814323977. In terms of social and economic policy, Labor is a social democratic party; Mapam, the old socialist left; CRM is an Israeli-style Green party; and Shinui is what Terry Clark has described as Neo-Populist—fiscally conservative and liberal on life-style issues.
^ Sharon Weinblum (2015). Security and Defensive Democracy in Israel: A Critical Approach to Political Discourse. Routledge. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-317-58450-6.
^ Itamar Rabinovich; Jehuda Reinharz (2008). Israel in the Middle East: Documents and Readings on Society, Politics, and Foreign Relations, Pre-1948 to the Present. p. 290. ISBN 9780874519624. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
^ "Domestic politics in Israeli peace-making, 1988-1994" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 May 2015.
^ Amnon Rapoport (1990). Experimental Studies of Interactive Decisions. Kluwer Academic. p. 388. ISBN 0792306856. Hatnua Lezlmiot Haezrah (the Civil Rights Movement, or CRM) is primarily interested in protecting the secular character of the State of Israel and the civil rights of its citizens. The CRM advocates a liberal economic policy and a dovish stand in the Israeli-Arab conflict.