Meretz (מרצ, Vitality, Energy) was an Israeli political party, considered to be on the "left" and secular. It was formed in 1992 by the merger of three other parties, RATZ (רץ, Movement for Civil Rights and Peace), Mapam (מפ"ם, Israeli Workers Party) and Shinui (שינוי, Change). In 1996 they officially registered as a single party, but in 1997 part of Shinui (under the leadership of Avraham Poraz) left to form a separate movement.

Meretz positions are left-wing in both social-economical and political views: Meretz supports the foundation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. It demands the total evacuation of Israeli settlements, and the retreat of the Israeli army from all occupied territories. It is associated with the non-parliamental movement "Peace Now". Furthermore, Meretz supports moderate interference of the state in internal-economy and the full liberation of civil-rights from religion.

Meretz defines itself as a Zionist party, although it has taken more radical positions during the Al-Aqsa Intifada. Meretz has 2 main factions within it:

1. The "Securitist Zionists" (Bithonistim) led by Yossi Sarid, Ran Cohen and Avshalom Vilan ;
2. The radicals led by Zehava Galon , Yossi Beilin and Shulamit Aloni .

The two factions differ mainly on their approach toward Israeli military operations in the occupied territories: while the Securitist faction regards them as legitimate counter-terror operations, the radical stream oppose them as "illegal and immoral" attacks. Although Meretz officially denounces refusal to serve in the military on political grounds, the radical faction supports the refuseniks and justify their actions. Furthermore, there is a group of refuseniks who are members of the various institutions of Yahad, amongst others, the Yahad Council, the Yahad Management and the party Court.

Meretz currently has 6 seats in the (16th elected) Israeli Parliament, and had seats number in previous Parliaments as listed:

1992 - 12 seats, 1996 - 9 seats, 1999 - 10 seats, 2003 - 6 seats.

Disbanding of Meretz

In December 2003, Meretz was disbanded in order to merge with Yossi Beilin's SHAHAR (שח"ר) movement and Roman Bronfman 's "The Democratic Choice" party. The new party will be called "Yahad" (יח"ד);, which literally means Together, but is also an abbreviation of "Democrat Social Israel" in Hebrew. The original name was to be "Yaad", which means "goal" in Hebrew, but was replaced because the meaning of Yaad in Russian is poison. In March 2004 a party leadership race was run between Meretz's Ran Cohen and Shahar's Yossi Beilin, with Yossi Beilin emerging the victor. Following the victory of Beilin and Yachad's radicalization, many former Meretz supporters withdrew their support from the new party.

See also

• Yachad
• List of political parties in Israel

External linshak

• Meretz Official Website (Hebrew, English, Arabic and Russian)