Independent Liberals (Israel)

{{distinguish|Independence (Israeli political party)|Independent Centre|Independent Socialist Faction}}

{{Infobox political party

|name = Independent Liberals

|native_name = {{Script/Hebrew|ליברלים עצמאיים}}

|colorcode = {{party color|Independent Liberals (Israel)}}

| logo = Independent Liberals.svg

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|leader =

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|president = Pinchas Rosen
Moshe Kol
Gideon Hausner
Yitzhak Artzi
Zvi Nir

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|founded = 16 March 1965

|dissolved = 1992

|merger =

|split = Liberal Party

|merged = Labor Party

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|ideology = Liberalism
Social liberalism{{cite journal

| last = Goldstein

| first = Amir

| title = "We Have a Rendezvous With Destiny"—The Rise and Fall of the Liberal Alternative

| journal = Israel Studies

| volume = 16

| issue = 1

| pages = 27, 32, 47, 49

| date = Spring 2011

| doi = 10.2979/isr.2011.16.1.26

| s2cid = 143487617

| url = https://www.academia.edu/10234084

| quote = Thus, the PP continued to represent mostly white collar and government workers, intellectuals, and the labor intelligentsia, all of whom favored the social liberalism, broadly-based universal views, and social and religious pluralism that the party stood for.⁴(27); Kol wrote to Goldmann...: 'But the party must be founded on a clear ideological basis, and no such basis exists between our progressive humanistic liberalism and Herut.'²⁰(32); Kol emphasized that, 'The Herut Movement and social liberalism cannot dwell together in the same house.'(47); The PP, renamed the 'Independent Liberal Party,' resumed its progressive activity by trying to influence government policy—even if only marginally—from within the Labor camp, and affiliating itself with the ruling party.(49)}}{{cite journal

| title = Translations on Near East and North Africa, No. 1635: Background to May 1977 General Elections

| journal = U.S. Joint Publications Research Service

| volume =

| issue = 68874

| pages = 13

| date = 4 April 1977

| url = http://docplayer.net/120438069-Sil-si-o-translations-on-near-east-and-north-africa-no-t-9-u-s-joint-publications-research-service-sag.html

| quote = The liberalism of Independent Liberals is in the spirit of the social humanism of the 20th Century.}}

Progressivism
Secularism{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/politicsofcompro0000birn |url-access=registration |title=The Politics of Compromise: State and Religion in Israel |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press |author=Ervin Birnbaum |year= 1970|isbn=08386-7567-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/politicsofcompro0000birn/page/66 66] |quote=The ILP is strongly secularist and is a staunch foe of religious encroachment and domination in the country.}}

|position = Center

|national =

|international = Liberal International{{cite book|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/independent-liberal-party|title=Encyclopedia Judaica|volume=9|page=771|year=2007|quote=The Independent Liberal Party was affiliated with the Liberal International. In the elections to the Eleventh Knesset in 1984 the Independent Liberals ran within the Alignment list, and its representative, Yitzhak Arzi was elected. Towards the end of the Eleventh Knesset Arzi left the Alignment and joined the Shinui parliamentary group. Towards the end of the 1980s the Independent Liberals ceased to exist.}}

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|seats1_title = Most MKs

|seats1 = 7 (1965)

|seats2_title = Fewest MKs

|seats2 = 1 (1977–1981;1984-1988)

| symbol = 50px

|website =

|country = Israel

}}

The Independent Liberals ({{langx|he|ליברלים עצמאיים}}, Libralim Atzma'im) were a political party in Israel that existed between 1965 and 1992.

History

The Independent Liberals party was formed during the fifth Knesset in the aftermath of the merger of the Liberal Party and Herut. Seven of the 17 Liberal Party MKs led by former Minister of Justice, Pinchas Rosen, disagreed with the merger and founded a new party in response. Almost all of the dissenters were former members of the Progressive Party, which had merged with the General Zionists to create the Liberal Party during the fourth Knesset, and also included Rachel Cohen-Kagan, formerly an MK for Women's International Zionist Organization.

The party agreed to have the Israeli participation in Liberal International shared equally with the Liberal Party.{{cite book|title=A Sense of Liberty: The History of the Liberal International, 1847-1997|author=Julie Smith|publisher=Liberal International|year=1997|page=45|quote=Contacts with Israeli Liberals were complicated by domestic party divisions within the Israeli Party. LI had contacts with the Progressive Party and the General Zionist Party in the 1950s; a united Liberal Party was created in 1961 and joined LI. Then in 1965, following further domestic political change, the party split and the two offshoots, the Liberal Party (formerly the General Zionists) and the Independent Liberal Party (formerly Progressives), agreed that Israeli participation should be shared equally between them.}}

Its constituency was overwhelmingly of European origin.{{cite journal |author=U.O. Schmelz, Sergio DellaPergola, and Uri Avner |date=1990 |title=Ethnic Differences Among Israeli Jews: A New Look |url=http://ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/1990_3_SpecialArticles.pdf |journal=American Jewish Yearbook |volume= |issue= |pages=85, 95 |doi= |access-date=2021-07-09}}

In their first electoral test, the 1965 legislative election, the Independent Liberals won 5 seats and joined Levi Eshkol and Golda Meir's coalition governments, with Moshe Kol appointed Minister of Tourism and Minister of Development. During the sixth Knesset they lost one seat when Yizhar Harari left the party to join the Alignment.

In the 1969 election the party won four seats and were again included in Meir's coalition government. Kol retained his post as Minister of Tourism. The party also won four seats in the 1973 election and were included in both of Meir and Yitzhak Rabin's coalition governments. Kol again retained his post as Minister of Tourism and Gideon Hausner was made a Minister without Portfolio. However, they lost one seat when Hillel Seidel defected to Likud.

The 1977 election saw the party win only one seat, barely crossing the 1% electoral threshold (they received 1.3% of the vote). The party was also excluded from Menachem Begin's right-wing coalition. The 1981 election saw the party fail to cross the electoral threshold and disappear from the Knesset. For the 1984 election the party ran as a faction of the Alignment, with Independent Liberals leader Yitzhak Artzi given 44th place on the Alignment electoral list.{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/TheJerusalemPost1985IsraelEnglish |title=The Jerusalem Post Magazine |year=1985 |access-date=February 26, 2024}}

On 15 March 1988, near the end of the 11th Knesset, Artzi left the Alignment and joined the Shinui parliamentary group.{{cite news|url=https://www.jta.org/1988/10/24/archive/the-israeli-elections-27-parties-of-all-kinds-running-part-1-of-a-series|title=The Israeli Elections: 27 Parties of All Kinds Running (part 1 of a Series)|publisher=Jewish Telegraphic Agency|date=1988-10-24}}[https://www.knesset.gov.il/faction/eng/FactionHistoryAll_eng.asp Mergers and Splits Among Parliamentary Groups] In the 1988 election, the Independent Liberals ran together with Shinui and the Liberal Center (a group of former Likud Liberals); the three groups indicated they would cooperate rather than formally merge, pending the 1988 campaign, at which a combined list under the Shinui–Center Movement banner was presented.{{cite encyclopedia |title=Center Movement |encyclopedia=Political Handbook of the World: 1991 |year=1991 |last=Banks |first=Arthur S. |publisher=CSA Publications |location= |isbn=9780933199071 |id= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bVzOSBDeqcAC&q=cooperate%20rather%20than |access-date=2021-07-09 }}{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/shinui|title=Shinui|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Judaica via Encyclopedia.com|author=Susan Hattis Rolef|edition=2nd|accessdate=2021-07-09}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S97dDAAAQBAJ&dq=%22liberal+center%22+shinui+%22independent%22&pg=PA115|title=Historical Dictionary of Israel|author=Bernard Reich & David H. Goldberg|page=115|edition=3rd|year=2016|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9781442271852 |quote=CENTER-SHINUI MOVEMENT. A political bloc made up of three political parties: Shinui, the Independent Liberals (Haliberalim Haatzmaim), and the Liberal Center.}}{{cite news|url=http://pdfs.jta.org/1988/1988-10-27_195.pdf|title=The Israeli Elections: The Parties of the Left|publisher=Jewish Telegraphic Agency|date=October 27, 1998|quote=CENTER MOVEMENT-SHINUI. This is another Labor satellite party, non-Socialist on economic issues, thoroughly moderate on the issues of peace and the territories.}}; [https://www.jta.org/1988/10/27/archive/the-israeli-elections-the-parties-of-the-left] However, the list won only two seats and none were for Independent Liberal members.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EfTcAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA95|title=Israel at the Polls, 2003|editor=Shmuel Sandler, M. Ben Mollov & Jonathan Rynhold|publisher=Routledge|year=2005|page=95|isbn=9781136828072|quote=The Independent Liberal party survived as an independent party from 1965 until 1981; its representative participated in the Labour list in 1984; it formed together with Shinui the Shinui-Centre party in the 1988 elections, but did not succeed in winning a seat in the Knesset; and in 1992 it merged with the Labour party.}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D6mFCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA458|title=Political Handbook of the World: 1998|editor=Arthur S. Banks & Thomas C. Muller|publisher=Springer|year=1998|page=458|isbn=9781349149513}} The Independent Liberal party merged with the Israeli Labor Party in 1992.