Movement for Greater Israel
Encyclopedia
The Movement for Greater Israel was a political organisation in Israel
during the 1960s and 1970s which subscribed to an ideology of Greater Israel
.
The organization was formed in July 1967, a month after Israel captured the Gaza Strip
, Sinai peninsula
the West Bank
and the Golan Heights in the Six-Day War
. It called on the Israeli government to keep the captured areas and to settle them with Jewish population. Its founders were a mixture of Labor Zionists
, Revisionists
, writers and poets, including Nathan Alterman
, Aharon Amir
, Haim Gouri
, Rachel Yanait Ben-Zvi
, Yitzhak Tabenkin
, Icchak Cukierman
, Zivia Lubetkin
, Eliezer Livneh
, Moshe Shamir
, Shmuel Katz, Zev Vilnay
, Uri Zvi Greenberg
, Shmuel Yosef Agnon
, Isser Harel
, Israel Eldad
, Dan Tolkovsky
and Avraham Yoffe
.
In the 1969 Knesset elections
it ran as the "List for the Land of Israel", but earned only 7,561 votes (0.6%), and failed to cross the electoral threshold of 1%. Prior to the 1973 elections
, it joined the Likud
, an alliance of Herut
, the Liberal Party
, the Free Centre
and the National List
. Likud won 39 seats, of which one was allocated to the Movement for Greater Israel, and taken by Avraham Yoffe.
In 1976 it merged with the National List and the Independent Centre
(a breakaway from the Free Centre) to form La'am
, which remained a faction within Likud until its merger into Herut in 1984. Two of its members, Moshe Shamir and Zvi Shiloah
later became Knesset members for Likud and Tehiya
.
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
during the 1960s and 1970s which subscribed to an ideology of Greater Israel
Greater Israel
Greater Israel is a controversial expression with several different Biblical and political meanings over time.Currently, the most common definition of the land encompassed by the term is the territory of the State of Israel together with the Palestinian territories...
.
The organization was formed in July 1967, a month after Israel captured the Gaza Strip
Gaza Strip
thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...
, Sinai peninsula
Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai is a triangular peninsula in Egypt about in area. It is situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Red Sea to the south, and is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia as opposed to Africa, effectively serving as a land bridge between two...
the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
and the Golan Heights in the Six-Day War
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...
. It called on the Israeli government to keep the captured areas and to settle them with Jewish population. Its founders were a mixture of Labor Zionists
Labor Zionism
Labor Zionism can be described as the major stream of the left wing of the Zionist movement. It was, for many years, the most significant tendency among Zionists and Zionist organizational structure...
, Revisionists
Revisionist Zionism
Revisionist Zionism is a nationalist faction within the Zionist movement. It is the founding ideology of the non-religious right in Israel, and was the chief ideological competitor to the dominant socialist Labor Zionism...
, writers and poets, including Nathan Alterman
Nathan Alterman
Nathan Alterman was an Israeli poet, playwright, journalist, and translator who – though never holding any elected office – was highly influential in Socialist Zionist politics, both before and after the establishment of the State of Israel.-Biography:...
, Aharon Amir
Aharon Amir
Aharon Amir was an Israeli Hebrew poet, a literary translator and a writer.- Biography :Amir was born in Kaunas, Lithuania. He moved to Palestine with his family in 1933 and grew up in Tel Aviv. His father,...
, Haim Gouri
Haim Gouri
Haim Gouri is an Israeli poet, novelist, journalist, and documentary filmmaker.-Biography:Haim Gouri was born in Tel Aviv. After studying at the Kadoorie Agricultural High School, he joined the Palmach militia. In 1947 he was sent to Hungary to assist Holocaust survivors to come to Palestine...
, Rachel Yanait Ben-Zvi
Rachel Yanait Ben-Zvi
Rachel Yanait Ben-Zvi was an Israeli author and educator, and a leading Labor Zionist. Ben-Zvi was the wife of the second President of Israel, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi.-Biography:...
, Yitzhak Tabenkin
Yitzhak Tabenkin
-External links:...
, Icchak Cukierman
Icchak Cukierman
Icchak Cukierman , also known by his nom de guerre "Antek", or by the anglicised spelling Yitzhak Zuckerman, was one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising during World War II.Cukierman was born in Vilnius, Lithuania into a Jewish family...
, Zivia Lubetkin
Zivia Lubetkin
Zivia Lubetkin was one of the leaders of the Jewish underground in Nazi-occupied Warsaw and the only woman on the High Command of the resistance group Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa .-Pre-World War II:...
, Eliezer Livneh
Eliezer Livneh
Eliezer Livneh was a Zionist activist, journalist, publicist and Israeli politician. He is known for his activism for nuclear proliferation of the Middle East and for his endorsement of the Greater Israel cause.-Biography:...
, Moshe Shamir
Moshe Shamir
Moshe Shamir was an Israeli author, playwright, opinion writer, and public figure.-Biography:...
, Shmuel Katz, Zev Vilnay
Zev Vilnay
Zev Vilnay was an Israeli geographer, author and lecturer.-Biography:Zev Vilnay was born in Kishinev. He moved to Palestine with his parents at the age of six and grew up in Haifa. He served as a military topographer in the Haganah, and later in the Israel Defense Forces. Vilnay and his wife...
, Uri Zvi Greenberg
Uri Zvi Greenberg
Uri Zvi Grinberg was an acclaimed Israeli poet and journalist who wrote in Yiddish and Hebrew.-Biography:Uri Zvi Grinberg was born in Bialikamin, Galicia, then Austria-Hungary, into a prominent Hasidic family. He was raised in Lemberg . Some of his poems in Yiddish and Hebrew were published...
, Shmuel Yosef Agnon
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
Shmuel Yosef Agnon , was a Nobel Prize laureate writer and was one of the central figures of modern Hebrew fiction. In Hebrew, he is known by the acronym Shai Agnon . In English, his works are published under the name S. Y. Agnon.Agnon was born in Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire...
, Isser Harel
Isser Harel
Isser Harel was spymaster of the intelligence and the security services of Israel and the Director of the Mossad . In his capacity as Mossad director he oversaw the abduction, and secret transport to Israel, of Holocaust organizer Adolph Eichmann....
, Israel Eldad
Israel Eldad
Israel Eldad , was a noted Israeli independence fighter and Revisionist Zionist philosopher...
, Dan Tolkovsky
Dan Tolkovsky
Aluf Dan Tolkovsky was the commander of the Israeli Air Force from May 1953 to July 1958. Tolkovsky entered the military in 1943, when the Royal Air Force sent a Jewish unit from Palestine to train at a flight school in Rhodesia ...
and Avraham Yoffe
Avraham Yoffe
Avraham Yoffe was an Israeli general during the Six-Day War. He later entered politics, and served as a member of the Knesset for Likud between 1973 and 1977.-Biography:...
.
In the 1969 Knesset elections
Israeli legislative election, 1969
Elections for the seventh Knesset were held in Israel on 28 October 1969. Voter turnout was 81.7%.-Results:¹ Meir Avizohar defected from the National List to the Alignment² Avner Shaki left the National Religious Party and remained a single MK...
it ran as the "List for the Land of Israel", but earned only 7,561 votes (0.6%), and failed to cross the electoral threshold of 1%. Prior to the 1973 elections
Israeli legislative election, 1973
The Elections for the eighth Knesset were held on 31 December 1973. Voter turnout was 78.6%.-Results:1 Aryeh Eliav left the Alignment and merged with Ratz to form Ya'ad - Civil Rights Movement...
, it joined the Likud
Likud
Likud is the major center-right political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin in an alliance with several right-wing and liberal parties. Likud's victory in the 1977 elections was a major turning point in the country's political history, marking the first time the left had...
, an alliance of Herut
Herut
Herut was the major right-wing political party in Israel from the 1940s until its formal merger into Likud in 1988, and an adherent of Revisionist Zionism.-History:...
, the Liberal Party
Liberal Party (Israel)
The Israeli Liberal Party was a political party in Israel and is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Likud.-History:The Liberal Party was formed on 8 May 1961, towards the end of the fourth Knesset, by a merger of the General Zionists and the Progressive Party, with the new party having 14...
, the Free Centre
Free Centre
The Free Centre was a political party in Israel, and is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Likud.-Background:The party was created on 29 March 1967 during the sixth Knesset when Shmuel Tamir led a breakaway of three Herut members after a leadership dispute with Menachem Begin...
and the National List
National List
The National List , sometimes translated as the State List, was a political party in Israel. Despite being founded by David Ben-Gurion, one of the fathers of the Israeli left, the party is an ancestor of the modern-day Likud, Israel's largest right-wing bloc.-Background:The National List had been...
. Likud won 39 seats, of which one was allocated to the Movement for Greater Israel, and taken by Avraham Yoffe.
In 1976 it merged with the National List and the Independent Centre
Independent Centre
-History:The faction was established by Eliezer Shostak and Ehud Olmert in 1974 when they broke away from the Free Centre, a member of the Likud alliance. The new faction remained part of Likud....
(a breakaway from the Free Centre) to form La'am
La'am
La'am was a political faction in Israel that formed part of Likud between 1976 and 1984.-History:Between its formation in 1973 and formal merger in 1988, Likud consisted of an alliance of several right wing parties. The two largest blocs were Herut and the Liberal Party, which had formed the Gahal...
, which remained a faction within Likud until its merger into Herut in 1984. Two of its members, Moshe Shamir and Zvi Shiloah
Zvi Shiloah
Zvi Shiloah was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Tehiya in 1984.-Biography:Born Zvi Langsam in Boryslav, Austria-Hungary , Shiloah was educated in a local gymnasium. During his youth he was a member of the Gordonia movement...
later became Knesset members for Likud and Tehiya
Tehiya
Tehiya , originally known as Banai , then Tehiya-Bnai , was a small right-wing political party in Israel that existed from 1979 until 1992...
.