Hapoel Hatzair

File:Pre-State_Zionist_Workers'_Parties_chart.png|chart of zionist workers parties|360px|right

rect 167 83 445 250 Hapoel Hatzair

rect 450 88 717 265 Non Partisans

rect 721 86 995 243 Poalei Zion

rect 152 316 373 502 HaPoel HaMizrachi

rect 552 328 884 512 Ahdut HaAvoda

rect 891 301 1111 534 Poalei Zion Left

rect 283 519 668 928 Mapai

rect 5 665 169 1432 HaOved HaTzioni

rect 697 747 918 953 Ahdut HaAvoda Movement

rect 755 977 959 1234 Ahdut HaAvoda Poalei ZIon

rect 775 1265 1136 1444 Mapam

rect 966 1023 1232 1217 HaShomer Hatzair Workers' Party

rect 1044 572 1228 766 HaShomer HaTzair

rect 942 769 1177 919 Socialist League of Palestine

rect 387 1275 734 1447 Mapai

rect 365 1260 174 1447 HaPoel HaMizrachi

rect 36 6 1225 81 Labor Zionism

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Hapoel Hatzair was formed in 1905 by ten members of the second wave of Jewish immigrants to Palestine, who came between 1904 and 1914.Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Bedford/St. Martin's, Boston, 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-312-43736-7}}, p. 38.Rafael Medoff, Chaim I. Waxman, Historical Dictionary of Zionism, Routledge, 5 Sep 2013 Four of the founders came from Płońsk in the Russian Empire.Bar-Zohar, Michael (1978) Ben-Gurion. Translated by Peretz Kidron. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London. {{ISBN|0-297-77401-8}}. Originally published in Israel 1977. p. 17 The new immigrants sought to build a Jewish socialist homeland in Palestine and formed two groups in order to accomplish this: Marxist Poale Zion (Workers of Zion) and Hapoel Hatzair.Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Bedford/St. Martin's, Boston, 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-312-43736-7}}, p. 40. By 1906, Hapoel Hatzair had grown to 90 members.Walter Laqueur, The History of Zionism, Knopf Publishing Group, 2003, {{ISBN|978-0-8052-1149-8}}, p.282. In 1907, it founded a newspaper of the same name. By 1910, the group had grown, although not to huge numbers. There were only 500 members of Hapoel Hatzair and Poale Zion combined. Hapoel Hatzair's commitment to practical Zionism and the conquest of labour created a group that was dedicated to the creation of new Jewish agricultural communities. Hapoel Hatzair settled land bought from Arab effendis (landowners) by the Jewish National Fund in accordance with socialist principles.6. Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Bedford/St. Martin's, Boston, 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-312-43736-7}}, p.40.

When Ahdut HaAvoda was formed in 1919, Hapoel Hatzair decided not to join, although some members did leave to join Ahdut HaAvoda.Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Bedford/St. Martin's, Boston, 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-312-43736-7}}, p.121. Leaders of Hapoel Hatzair felt that the Labor Union, which had strong political ambitions, would dominate any united group and they did not want this to cause them to compromise Hapoel Hatzair's role as the conscience of the labor movement.Walter Laqueur, The History of Zionism, Knopf Publishing Group, 2003, {{ISBN|978-0-8052-1149-8}}, p.304-305. By not joining Ahdut HaAvoda, Hapoel Hatzair was forced to enter into the urban worker movement. While powerful among agricultural workers, Hapoel Hatzair did not have a large following in the towns; however, they did have a significant following among writers, teachers, and other intellectuals, which although not helpful in the political arena, did bring more prestige to the group.Walter Laqueur, The History of Zionism, Knopf Publishing Group, 2003, {{ISBN|978-0-8052-1149-8}}, p.305.

Over time, members of Hapoel Hatzair and Ahdut HaAvoda realized that they were duplicating work. As both groups existed as a labor group as well as a political party, they had separate employment exchanges, mutual aid organisations, cultural and social clubs, and sickness funds. In 1920, it was suggested that they unite. This led to the formation of the Histadrut, which was a single workers organization to control labor. While these parties had united their labor organizations into the Histadrut, they continued to fight for dominance of this group. In the first election in 1924, Hapoel Hatzair won 27 seats, which was second only to Ahdut HaAvoda, which held 38.{{cite journal |last1=Perlmutter |first1=Amos |title=Berl Katznelson and the Theory and Practice of Revolutionary Constructivism |journal=Middle Eastern Studies |date=1977 |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=71–89 |doi=10.1080/00263207708700335 |jstor=4282621 }} While Ahdut HaAvoda was larger, Hapoel Hatzair was more powerful; In 1921 Yosef Sprinzak of Hapoel Hatzair was the first member of the labor movement to be elected to the Zionist Executive.

By the end of the 1920s, Ahdut HaAvoda, with the help of David Ben-Gurion, had won control of the Histadrut. Economic troubles at the end of the 1920s caused the Histadrut to apply intense pressure to Jewish companies which employed Arabs. Many Jews viewed this as a threat to their livelihood. The Histadrut thus faced opposition and Ben-Gurion saw that a united Histadrut would be more powerful against opposition. He thus united Ahdut HaAvoda and Hapoel Hatzair in December 1930 to create the Mapai party, bringing an end to Hapoel Hatzair.Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Bedford/St. Martin's, Boston, 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-312-43736-7}}, p.122. One of the Hapoel Hatzair leaders who joined the senior levels of Mapai was Haim Arlosoroff.

Leading female members of Hapoel Hatzair were among some of the leaders of the Jewish feminist movement. While the only female delegates of the first Histadrut were members of Ahdut HaAvoda, members of Hapoel Hatzair, Ada Fishman-Maimon and Yael Gordon, were invited to attend as guests.{{cite journal |last1=Izraeli |first1=Dafna N. |title=The Zionist Women's Movement in Palestine, 1911-1927: A Sociological Analysis |journal=Signs |date=1981 |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=87–114 |doi=10.1086/493863 |jstor=3173511 |s2cid=144673044 }} While there, Ada Maimon, who was a leader in the struggle for women's suffrage in Jewish institutions, objected to the fact that no delegates to the Histadrut had been chosen by female workers and that they therefore did not represent these women. After gaining support of the leading parties, including her own Hapoel Hatzair, she was granted a position at the Histadrut and two seats were then reserved for delegates who had been elected by women workers themselves.

In March 1920, at a congress in Prague, the World Union of Hapoel Hatzair and Zeirei Zion formed Hitahdut Olamit (known as Hitahdut). In 1926, at its Berlin third congress, its name was changed to the World Zionist Labour Party Hitahdut. Its youth movement was named Gordonia, after A. D. Gordon. In 1932, it merged with Poale Zion to create Ihud Olami, the World Union of Zionists-Socialists.

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Category:Jewish socialism

Category:Political parties established in 1905

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Category:Political parties disestablished in 1930