Progress and Work was a political party in Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

.

History

The Progress and Work party was an Israeli Arab organisation formed to fight the 1951 elections

Israeli legislative election, 1951

Elections for the second Knesset were held in Israel on 30 July 1951. Voter turnout was 75.1%.-Results:¹ Rostam Bastuni, Avraham Berman and Moshe Sneh left Mapam and set up the Left Faction. Bastuni later returned to Mapam whilst Berman and Sneh joined Maki. Hannah Lamdan and David Livschitz left...

. Like most other Israeli Arab parties at the time, it was associated with David Ben-Gurion

David Ben-Gurion

' was the first Prime Minister of Israel.Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946...

's Mapai

Mapai

Mapai was a left-wing political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger into the Israeli Labor Party in 1968...

 party, as Ben Gurion was keen to include Israeli Arabs in the functioning of the state in order to prove Jews and Arab

Arab

Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

s could co-exist peacefully and productively.

In the elections, the party won only one seat, taken by its leader, Salah-Hassan Hanifes

Salah-Hassan Hanifes

Salah-Hassan Hanifes was a Druze Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Progress and Work between 1951 and 1959.-Biography:...

. Because of its association with Mapai

Mapai

Mapai was a left-wing political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger into the Israeli Labor Party in 1968...

, the party joined the governing coaltion in all four governments of the second Knesset.

In the 1955 elections

Israeli legislative election, 1955

Elections for the third Knesset were held in Israel on 26 July 1955. Voter turnout was 82.8%.-Results:Mapai retained its plurality in the Knesset, although its share of the vote dropped by 5.1 and its share of seats dropped from 47 to 40...

 the party won two seats. Saleh Suleiman

Saleh Suleiman

Saleh Suleiman was an Israeli Arab politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Progress and Work between 1955 and 1959.-Biography:Suleiman was born in Reineh during the Ottoman era...

 took the second seat, and the party was again part of the coalition.

In 1959, a falling out between Hanifes and Mapai led to Hanifes setting up a new party, the Independent Faction for Israeli Arabs to fight the 1959 elections

Israeli legislative election, 1959

Elections for the fourth Knesset were held in Israel on 3 November 1959. Voter turnout was 81.5%.-Results:¹ The General Zionists and the Progressive Party merged to form the Liberal Party....

. Both parties failed to cross the electoral threshold, with Progress and Work receiving 0.5% of the votes, and the Independent Faction 0.4%.

In the 1961 elections

Israeli legislative election, 1961

Elections for the fifth Knesset were held in Israel on 15 August 1961. Voter turnout was 81.6%.-Results:¹ Eight MKs broke away from Mapai to establish Rafi² Herut and the Liberal Party merged to form Gahal...

the party won 0.4% of the vote. After its second failure to cross the threshold, the party disappeared.

External links

• Progress and Work Knesset website