Yisrael Beiteinu

Yisrael Beytenu ישראל ביתנו
Founded 1999
by Avigdor Lieberman
Leader Avigdor Lieberman
Number of MPs at height of power 11 (2006)
Political ideology Neoconservatism
Headquarters Jerusalem
Website beytenu.org.il
See also the Politics of Israel series

Yisrael Beiteinu (Hebrew: ישראל ביתנו‎, lit. Israel is Our Home) is a right-wing political party in Israel. It takes a hard line towards Arab citizens of Israel and other Palestinians for their perceived denial of the right of the "Jewish State" to exist through maintenance of a Jewish majority in Israel. Its main platform involves the transfer of Arab citizens of Israel to a future Palestinian state, in conjunction with efforts to increase Jewish immigration. Yisrael Beiteinu received 11 seats in the Knesset in the 2006 elections. In October 2006 the party became part of the Kadima-led coalition government, but pulled out in January 2008.

Contents

Founding

Yisrael Beiteinu was formed by Avigdor Lieberman to create a platform for Russian immigrants who support a hard line in negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. Lieberman, a former Likud member, is known for his plan to redraw the Green Line with the West Bank in such a way that areas such as the Triangle and Wadi Ara—transferred to Israel from Jordan as part of the 1949 Armistice Agreements—will be transferred to Arab sovereignty. Such an arrangement would mean that a third of Arab citizens of Israel would lose Israeli citizenship.

Lieberman argues that the residents of the area are Arabs who see themselves as Palestinians rather than Israelis, and therefore should be encouraged to join the Palestinian Authority. He has been involved in widely-publicized offers of financial compensation in exchange for renouncing their citizenship and land. Lieberman has presented this proposal as part of a potential peace proposal aimed at establishing two separate national entities, one for Israelis and one for Palestinians. However, he is known to have an affinity for the non-Jewish Druze population (the only Arab population to be fully drafted into the IDF), and has attracted a number of Druze voters. Across the board, Arab citizens of Israel have not received his proposal positively.

Lieberman's actions were motivated by the concessions granted by his former boss, Benjamin Netanyahu (when he was director-general of the Likud) to the Palestinian Authority in the 1997 Wye River Memorandum, featuring the division of the West Bank city of Hebron. One of the partners in Netanyahu's coalition was Yisrael BaAliyah, a new immigrants' list led by Natan Sharansky that also had right-of-centre leanings. Lieberman himself had resigned from the Likud as a result of the Wye Accords, and he registered great disappointment when Sharansky did not pull out of the coalition, as did two of Sharansky's colleagues in Yisrael BaAliyah, Michael Nudelman and Yuri Stern, both of whom broke away to form Aliyah.

For the 1999 elections, Lieberman and Aliyah formed Yisrael Beiteinu, and the list won four seats, two short of Yisrael BaAliyah, although later two more members of Israel BaAliya later defected to left-wing parties.

Development

For the 2003 elections the party joined the National Union, an alliance of right-wing parties led by Binyamin Elon, although the two groups parted ways shortly after joining Ariel Sharon's coalition.

In the 2006 elections, Yisrael Beiteinu ran alone. It was joined by former Shin Bet Deputy Director, Israel Hasson (who won third place on its list). The party was successful, winning 11 seats. It did not join the central-left government and initially opted to operate in opposition, but became part of the coalition in October 2006.

The party was involved in controversy in January 2007 after Labour leader Amir Peretz nominated Raleb Majadele for the position of Minister of Science and Technology, making him Israel's first Muslim Arab minister.[1] Lieberman condemned the nomination and called for Peretz's resignation, accusing him of harming Israel's security by ceding to "internal rivalries" within the Labour party, whilst Peretz accused Yisrael Beiteinu of being a racist party.[2] Yisrael Beiteinu MK Esterina Tartman referred to Peretz's decision as a "lethal blow to Zionism," adding that Majadale's presence in the cabinet would damage "Israel's character as a Jewish state"[1] and that "We need to destroy this affliction from within ourselves. God willing, God will come to our help." Tartman's comments were immediately condemned as racist by other MKs.[3]

In January 2008 the party left the government in protest at peace talks with the Palestinian National Authority.[4] Lieberman pulled out of the government and left his position as Minister of Strategic Affairs, and almost immediately afterwards, Arutz Sheva reported that an investigation against Lieberman and his daughter that had been "ongoing for years, suddenly became active again once he left the government last week."[5]

Platform

Essentially, the two key principles held by the movement are the creation of an encouraging socio-economic environment for new immigrants to Israel, while at the same time taking a hard line on all negotiations with the Palestinians and other Arab states. Part of the academic argument in the movement's platform is based on the numerous studies published by faculties in Israel that warn of a danger posed to the Jewish character of Israel by the rising percentage of Arabs in the population of the state. The only solution, argue many of their supporters, is an increased effort to bring more Jews to Israel by immigration, and/or to convince as many Arab citizens of Israel as possible to leave. By giving in to Yasser Arafat's demands, argued Lieberman, the government would aggravate the threat by strengthening the Palestinians' resolve to demand the Right of Return of Palestinians to Israeli territory.

Yisrael Beiteinu supports a two-state solution to the conflict. According to the party motto, "Israel is Our Home, Palestine is Theirs". In 2005, the party proposed the so-called Lieberman Plan, an alternative to Sharon's Disengagement plan, that would see large blocs of land in Israel bordering the West Bank populated by Arabs transferred to the Palestinian Authority in exchange for recognition of Israeli sovereignty in the larger settlements including Gush Katif settlement bloc in the Gaza Strip which was destroyed before the withdrawal.

The plan broke with a long tradition in the right-wing revisionist Israeli nationalist camp that saw transfer of minority populations between states as the only solution to deal with a perceived threat of disloyalty by Arab citizens of Israel to the idea of a Jewish state in the Middle East. It was the first proposal for the transfer of lands in Israel-proper to the Palestinian Authority in exchange for peace.

Yisrael Beiteinu promotes the idea that all Israeli citizens should swear loyalty to the country and its symbols. The party emphasizes that since the majority of Arab citizens of Israel do not serve in the Israeli army, and since many identify with the Palestinians, they are disloyal, and thus should not enjoy citizenship in Israel.

Opposition

Yisrael Beiteinu and its plan have many vehement critics from the left to the right in Israel.

Despite its strong Zionist orientation, support for increased Jewish immigration (aliyah) and settlement expansion, Yisrael Beiteinu's platform is based in part on the creation of a Palestinian state adjacent to Israel, and thus has alienated much of the right-wing settlement movement which refuses to acknowledge Palestinian claims to any of the 'Land of Israel.'

The Lieberman Plan caused a stir among Arab citizens of Israel, which explicitly treats them as a 'fifth column,' and enemy within. On the one hand, with very few exceptions, Arabs in Israel argue that they are native to the region and should not have to renounce the villages and cities in which they, their parents, and their grandparents, if not their ancestors, were born. Others insist that they as Israeli citizens, they deserve equal rights within the State, and should not be singled out according to their ethnic or religious background. Various polls show that Arabs in Israel in general do not wish to move to the West Bank or Gaza if a Palestinian state is created there.[6]

Knesset members

The party has 11 MKs in the current Knesset.

  1. Avigdor Lieberman
  2. Israel Hasson
  3. Yosef Shagal
  4. Esterina Tartman
  5. Stas Misezhnikov
  6. Sofa Landver
  7. Yitzhak Aharonovich
  8. Robert Ilatov
  9. Alex Miller
  10. Lia Shemtov
  11. David Rotem (replaced the deceased Yuri Stern)

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lieberman calls on Peretz to quit over appointment of first Arab minister Haaretz, 12 January 2007
  2. ↑ Peretz: Israel Beiteinu 'racist party' Jerusalem Post, 16 January 2007
  3. ↑ Israel names first Arab minister BBC News, 12 January 2007
  4. ↑ Lieberman blasts Arab MKs, pulls party out of government Haaretz, 16 January 2008
  5. ↑ Ezra HaLevi[1] Arutz Sheva 01/24/08
  6. ↑ Israeli Arabs and the Vote International Herald Tribune, 24 March 2006

External links

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Kadima • Labour-Meimad • Shas • Likud • Yisrael Beiteinu • Gil • Meretz-Yachad • The Right Way
National Religious Party-National Union (Ahi, Moledet, Tkuma) • United Torah Judaism (Agudat Israel, Degel HaTorah)
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