Tami was a Mizrahi

Mizrahi Jews

Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahiyim, , also referred to as Adot HaMizrach are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa and the Caucasus...

-dominated 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...

 during the 1980s. It was led by Aharon Abuhatzira

Aharon Abuhatzira

Aharon Abuhatzira is a former Israeli politician. A former mayor of Ramla, he held several ministerial portfolios in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but resigned from the cabinet after being convicted of larceny, breach of trust and fraud.-Biography:...

 for its entire existence.

Background

Tami was founded shortly before the 1981 elections

Israeli legislative election, 1981

Elections for the tenth Knesset were held in Israel on 30 June 1981. Despite last minute polls suggesting a victory for Shimon Peres's Alignment, Menachem Begin's Likud won by just one seat...

 when Minister of Religions and former Mayor of Ramla

Ramla

Ramla , is a city in central Israel. The city is predominantly Jewish with a significant Arab minority. Ramla was founded circa 705–715 AD by the Umayyad Caliph Suleiman ibn Abed al-Malik after the Arab conquest of the region...

 Aharon Abuhatzira

Aharon Abuhatzira

Aharon Abuhatzira is a former Israeli politician. A former mayor of Ramla, he held several ministerial portfolios in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but resigned from the cabinet after being convicted of larceny, breach of trust and fraud.-Biography:...

 broke away from the National Religious Party

National Religious Party

The National Religious Party ) was a political party in Israel representing the religious Zionist movement. Formed in 1956, at the time of its dissolution in 2008, it was the second oldest surviving party in the country after Agudat Yisrael, and was part of every government coalition until 1992...

 after they had failed to stop him from being stripped of his parliamentary immunity and put on trial.

Campaigning on a platform of equality for all citizens regardless of religion, ethnic background, or nationality, Tami won three seats, taken by Abuhatzira, President of Sephardi Federation of Israel and former 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...

 and Alignment

Alignment (political party)

The Alignment was an alliance of the major left-wing parties in Israel between the 1960s and 1990s. It was established in 1965 as an alliance of Mapai and Ahdut HaAvoda but was dissolved three years later when the two parties and Rafi formally merged into the Israeli Labor Party...

 MK and Minister Aharon Uzan

Aharon Uzan

Aharon Uzan was an Israeli politician who held several ministerial portfolios between the mid-1960s and mid-1980s.-Biography:Uzan was born in Moknine in Tunisia, and was a member of the right-wing Betar movement in his youth. He made aliyah to Israel in 1949 and joined the left-wing Mapai party...

, and another former NRP member, Ben-Zion Rubin

Ben-Zion Rubin

Ben-Zion Rubin is a former Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the National Religious Party and Tami between 1977 and 1984.-Biography:Born in Tripoli in Libya in 1939, Rubin made aliyah to Israel in 1949...

. The party were invited into Menachem Begin

Menachem Begin

' was a politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Before independence, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944,...

's coalition government alongside 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...

, the National Religious Party, Agudat Israel

Agudat Israel

Agudat Yisrael began as the original political party representing the ultra-Orthodox population of Israel. It was the umbrella party for almost all ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel, and before that in the British Mandate of Palestine...

, Telem

Telem (political party)

Telem , lit. Movement for National Renewal) was a political party in Israel.-Background:Telem was formed on 19 May 1981 during the ninth Knesset by Moshe Dayan and two ex-Likud MKs. Dayan had been elected to the Knesset as an MK for the Alignment, which had lost the election for the first time in...

 and later 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...

. Abuhatzira was appointed Minister of Labor and Social Welfare and Minister of Immigrant Absorption

Immigrant Absorption Minister of Israel

The Ministry of Immigrant Absorption of Israel , known until 1951 as the Ministry of Immigration , a ministry in the Israeli government.In co-ordination with local authorities, the Ministry is responsible for new immigrants for three weeks after they arrive...

, but resigned from both positions in April 1982 after being convicted of larceny, breach of trust and fraud, handing over both positions to Uzan.

The party performed poorly in the 1984 elections

Israeli legislative election, 1984

Elections for the eleventh Knesset were held in Israel on 23 July 1984. Voter turnout was 78.8%. The results saw the Alignment return to being the largest party in the Knesset, a status it had lost in 1977...

, losing many of its voters to the new Sephardic party Shas

Shas

Shas is an ultra-orthodox religious political party in Israel, primarily representing Sephardic and Mizrahi Haredi Judaism.Shas was founded in 1984 by dissident members of the Ashkenazi dominated Agudat Israel, to represent the interests of religiously observant Sephardic and Mizrahi ...

, and won only one seat, taken by Abuhatzira. It merged into the Likud during the Knesset session and ceased to exist.

Knesset members

Knesset (MKs)	Knesset Members
10th Israeli legislative election, 1981 Elections for the tenth Knesset were held in Israel on 30 June 1981. Despite last minute polls suggesting a victory for Shimon Peres's Alignment, Menachem Begin's Likud won by just one seat... (3)	Aharon Abuhatzira Aharon Abuhatzira Aharon Abuhatzira is a former Israeli politician. A former mayor of Ramla, he held several ministerial portfolios in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but resigned from the cabinet after being convicted of larceny, breach of trust and fraud.-Biography:... , Ben-Zion Rubin Ben-Zion Rubin Ben-Zion Rubin is a former Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the National Religious Party and Tami between 1977 and 1984.-Biography:Born in Tripoli in Libya in 1939, Rubin made aliyah to Israel in 1949... , Aharon Uzan Aharon Uzan Aharon Uzan was an Israeli politician who held several ministerial portfolios between the mid-1960s and mid-1980s.-Biography:Uzan was born in Moknine in Tunisia, and was a member of the right-wing Betar movement in his youth. He made aliyah to Israel in 1949 and joined the left-wing Mapai party...
11th Israeli legislative election, 1984 Elections for the eleventh Knesset were held in Israel on 23 July 1984. Voter turnout was 78.8%. The results saw the Alignment return to being the largest party in the Knesset, a status it had lost in 1977... (1)	Aharon Abuhatzira Aharon Abuhatzira Aharon Abuhatzira is a former Israeli politician. A former mayor of Ramla, he held several ministerial portfolios in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but resigned from the cabinet after being convicted of larceny, breach of trust and fraud.-Biography:...

External links

• Tami Knesset website
• The Rise and Fall of TAMI S. Chetrit. (2000) Mizrahi politics in Israel: Between integration and alternative.