Progress and Work

Progress and Work (Hebrew: קִדְמָה וְעֲבוֹדָה‎, Kidma VeAvoda, Arabic: الزراعة والتطوير‎‎) was an Arab satellite list in Israel.

History

The Progress and Work party was an Israeli Arab organisation formed to fight the 1951 elections. Like most other Israeli Arab parties at the time, it was associated with David Ben-Gurion's Mapai party, as Ben Gurion was keen to include Israeli Arabs in the functioning of the state in order to prove Jews and Arabs could co-exist peacefully and productively.

In the elections, the party won only one seat, taken by its leader, Salah-Hassan Hanifes. Because of its association with Mapai, the party joined the governing coalition in all four governments of the second Knesset.

In the 1955 elections, the party won two seats. Saleh Suleiman 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. 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, 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