Chayil Party
Encyclopedia
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
.
History
The party was founded in January 2004 by Baruch MarzelBaruch Marzel
Baruch Meir Marzel is an Israeli politician. Marzel, an American-born Orthodox Jew, lives in the Jewish community of Hebron in Tel Rumeida with his wife and nine children. He is the leader of the Religious Zionism-orientated Jewish National Front party...
. The party ran in the 2006 elections to the Knesset
Israel legislative election, 2006
Elections for the 17th Knesset were held in Israel on 28 March 2006. The voting resulted in a plurality of seats for the then-new Kadima party, followed by the Labour Party, and a major loss for the Likud party....
on a joint list with Professor Paul Eidelberg
Paul Eidelberg
Paul Eidelberg is an American-Israeli political scientist, author and lecturer, and is the founder and president of The Foundation for Constitutional Democracy, with offices in Jerusalem. He is also president of the Yamin Israel Party.-Early career:...
's Yamin Israel
Yamin Israel
Yamin Yisrael was a minor right-wing political party in Israel.-Background:The party was founded on 24 July 1995 when Shaul Gutman broke away from Moledet. It ran in the 1996 elections, but failed to cross the electoral threshold of 1.5% and did not win a seat.In the 2003 elections the party ran a...
party but received less than the 2% minimum number of votes required to pass the threshold to receive representation.
Since Baruch Marzel
Baruch Marzel
Baruch Meir Marzel is an Israeli politician. Marzel, an American-born Orthodox Jew, lives in the Jewish community of Hebron in Tel Rumeida with his wife and nine children. He is the leader of the Religious Zionism-orientated Jewish National Front party...
was a senior activist for Kach
Kach and Kahane Chai
Kach was a far-right political party in Israel. Founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane in the early 1970s, and following his Jewish nationalist ideology , the party entered the Knesset in 1984 after several electoral failures...
, the most right-wing stream of nationalism in Israel, though Marzel was number two on Kleiner's Herut list for the 2003 Knesset elections.
In 2008, prior to the elections for the 18th Knesset, the party merged with Eretz Yisrael Shelanu
Eretz Yisrael Shelanu
Eretz Yisrael Shelanu is a far-right religious party in Israel. Founded by Chabad Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpo and Baruch Marzel on 11 November, 2008 it seeks to prevent both the creation of a Palestinian state as well as the dismantling of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.In 2008, in anticipation...
, which, in turn, joined with the larger National Union (Israel)
National Union (Israel)
The National Union is an alliance of nationalist political parties in Israel. In the 2009 elections the National Union consisted of four parties: Moledet, Hatikva, Eretz Yisrael Shelanu, and Tkuma.-Background:...
party. Jewish National Front representative Michael Ben-Ari
Michael Ben-Ari
Michael Ben-Ari is an Israeli politician, and a current member of the Knesset for the National Union party. He is the first outspoken disciple of Rabbi Meir Kahane to be elected to the Knesset. He has a Ph.D in Land of Israel studies.-Biography:...
was given the fourth spot on the list, and subsequently won a seat in the 18th Knesset in 2009. This marks the first time the Jewish National Front enjoyed Knesset representation.
Position
The party calls for a change in the country's electoral system so that KnessetKnesset
The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...
members represent constituencies, rather than being elected on a party list system, as well as switching to a presidential system of government.
It also supports preserving Israel as a Jewish state by increasing Jewish immigration
Aliyah
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...
, limiting immigration by people who are not Jewish according to Halakha
Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
, and Jewish education in public schools, and is against territorial compromise, citing the stance of Rabbi Chaim Zimmerman
Chaim Zimmerman
Rabbi Dr. Aharon Chaim Zimmerman was one of the leading rabbis of the Post-War generation. He was the son of Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Zimmerman and nephew of Rabbi Baruch Ber Lebowitz.-Education and work:...
, who wrote a halakhic discourse entitled "The Prohibition of Abandoning Land in Eretz Yisrael".