Religious Zionist Party
Template:Short description Template:Protection padlock Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox political party The Religious Zionist Party (Template:Langx), known as Tkuma (Template:Langx)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> until 2021 and officially known as National Union–Tkuma (Template:Langx, Template:Transliteration),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> was a far-right,<ref name="Oren 2023">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Rosenberg 2022">Template:Cite magazine</ref> ultra-nationalist,<ref name="Rosenberg 2022"/> Jewish supremacist,<ref name="Rosenberg 2022"/> and religious Zionist<ref name="Oren 2023"/><ref name="Rosenberg 2022"/> political party in Israel.<ref name=jpost7jan>Template:Cite web</ref> In all the elections since its founding in 1998, the party had joined other factions and competed as part of a united list. In 2023, the Religious Zionist Party and The Jewish Home agreed to merge to become National Religious Party–Religious Zionism.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
History
Tkuma was established by Hanan Porat and Zvi Hendel in 1998. The pair left the National Religious Party in reaction to the Wye River Memorandum.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Almost immediately after the creation of Tkuma, it joined together with Moledet and Herut – The National Movement, to form the National Union, a right-wing coalition which won four seats in the 1999 elections, with only one of those seats going to Tkuma. These elections were a failure for the right-wing bloc, and were won by Ehud Barak, leaving the National Union and Tkuma in the opposition.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In February 2000, Yisrael Beiteinu joined the National Union, alongside Tkuma, and the two parties joined Ariel Sharon's first government in 2001. One year later, Tkuma and the rest of the National Union left Sharon's government over disagreements over the handling of the Second Intifada. For the 2003 elections, the National Union kept its alliance with Yisrael Beiteinu, with its increased support helping to win seven seats for the entire list, and two for Tkuma. The party was included in Ariel Sharon's coalition, alongside Likud, Shinui, the National Religious Party, and Yisrael BaAliyah.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Because of tensions over the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip (Tkuma was ideologically opposed, and Hendel lived in the Gaza settlement of Ganei Tal), National Union ministers Binyamin Elon and Avigdor Lieberman were sacked, and the party left the coalition. However, the National Union was bolstered by the addition of Ahi, which had split off from the National Religious Party when they decided to remain in the coalition.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Before the 2006 elections, the alliance between the National Union and Yisrael Beiteinu was dissolved, and a new alliance between the National Union and the National Religious Party was formed, which won nine seats, two of which were allocated to Tkuma and taken by Hendel and Uri Ariel.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
On 3 November 2008, ahead of the 2009 elections, Tkuma faced a crisis. The party itself announced that it would unite with Ahi, the National Religious Party, and Moledet, to form a new right-wing party,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> which was later named the Jewish Home. However, around half of the former Tkuma members later left the new party to re-establish Tkuma and rejoin the National Union alongside Moledet, Hatikva, and Eretz Yisrael Shelanu.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the elections themselves, the National Union got four seats, with Tkuma getting two seats.
Ahead of the 2013 elections, the National Union split, with all member parties except for Tkuma splitting off to form Otzma LeYisrael, leaving Tkuma as the only party left in the National Union. Tkuma proceeded to change its name to "National Union–Tkuma", appropriating the National Union name. The party opted to run as part of the Jewish Home list for the 2013 elections. The Jewish Home won 12 seats, four of which (Ariel, Ben-Dahan, Kalfa, and Strook) were members of Tkuma. The party decided to continue its alliance with the Jewish Home for the 2015 Knesset elections,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> taking the 2nd, 8th, 13th, and 17th spots on the joint list.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Jewish Home dropped to eight seats in that election.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2019 Bezalel Smotrich took over party leadership, winning party elections in a landslide against Ariel.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Ahead of the April 2019 elections, the party joined with the Jewish Home and Otzma Yehudit to create the Union of Right-Wing Parties, which won five seats in the elections,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> two of which went to National Union–Tkuma.Template:Citation needed
Ahead of the September 2019 elections, Tkuma and the Jewish Home agreed to form an alliance with the New Right, called Yamina,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> with Tkuma leader Smotrich receiving the third spot on the joint list.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Yamina officially split on 10 October 2019 into two Knesset factions – the New Right, and the Jewish Home–National Union.<ref name=toi10oct>Template:Cite web</ref> For the 2020 elections, Otzma Yehudit and The Jewish Home agreed on 20 December to run together,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> in an alliance later named the United Jewish Home.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Smotrich was critical of the move, stating that it was unlikely that the alliance would pass the electoral threshold.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Tkuma, The Jewish Home, and the New Right reformed Yamina on 15 January 2020.<ref name=as15jan>Template:Cite web</ref> On 22 April 2020 it was reported that Yamina leader Naftali Bennett was now "considering all options" for Yamina's political future, including departing from Netanyahu's government, which had just agreed to a coalition government with the leader of the opposition Blue and White party, Benny Gantz, and joining the opposition. Bennett was said to be unhappy with the new coalition government's decision to hold back on the issue of judicial reform.<ref name=judicialrestraint>Template:Cite news</ref>
On 14 May 2020 The Jewish Home's only Knesset member, Rafi Peretz, ended his status as a member of Yamina, and agreed to join Netanyahu's new government as well.<ref name=oppositionnow>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On 15 May, Tkuma, along with the New Right, split with Netanyahu and made the Yamina alliance a member of the opposition. On 17 May 2020 Bennett met with Gantz, who also succeeded him as defence minister, and declared that the Yamina party would be a member of the opposition, with its "head held high".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Tkuma was renamed on 7 January,<ref name=jpost7jan/> while it ended its membership in Yamina on 20 January 2021.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In February 2021 the party agreed to run a shared list for the 2021 Knesset elections with Noam and Otzma Yehudit.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The list ran under the Religious Zionist Party name and won six seats,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> four of which were filled by Religious Zionist Party members.Template:Citation needed On 14 June, after the swearing-in of the 36th government, MK Ofir Sofer split from the Likud faction and merged into the Religious Zionist Party, increasing the number of seats held by the party to seven. He had run during the election as part of the Likud list for Knesset, as a member of Atid Ehad party, using it as a shelf party (a dormant, but still-registered, party brought back into use).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The Religious Zionist Party, Noam and Otzma Yehudit submitted a single list on 14 September 2022 ahead of the 2022 Knesset elections,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> which saw the alliance win 14 seats. The parties split into three parties in the Knesset on 20 November 2022.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Ideology
Template:Far-right politics in Israel Template:See also The Religious Zionist Party is opposed to any territorial concessions to Palestinian or Syrian claims for land. Some members support the annexation of the entire West Bank, though the official policy of the Jewish Home parliamentary faction, of which the party was aligned between 2013 and 2019, only supports annexation of Area C of the West Bank, which makes up the 63% of land in the West Bank allocated to Israel in the Oslo Accords.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The party is opposed to recognition of same-sex marriage on a religious basis.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The party advocates for increased funding for Torah study and religious education.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Jewish-American columnist David E. Rosenberg has stated that the Religious Zionist Party's "platform includes things like annexation of West Bank settlements, the expulsion of asylum-seekers, and political control of the judicial system".<ref name="Rosenberg 2022"/> He further described the Religious Zionist Party as a political party "driven by Jewish supremacy and anti-Arab racism".<ref name="Rosenberg 2022"/> The party has been assessed by The Middle East Journal as "militantly anti-Arab" and far-right.<ref name="Oren 2023"/>
Leaders
| Leader | Took office | Left office | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| style="background:Template:Party color; color: white" | 1 | File:Hanan Porat (portrait).JPG | Hanan Porat | 1998 | 1999 |
| style="background:Template:Party color; color: white" | 2 | File:Zvi Hendel (portrait).JPG | Zvi Hendel | 1999 | 2009 |
| style="background:Template:Party color; color: white" | 3 | File:Yaakov Katz, February 2018 (6146) (cropped).jpg | Ya'akov Katz | 2009 | 2012 |
| style="background:Template:Party color; color: white" | 4 | File:Ariel uri-yehuda.jpg | Uri Ariel | 2012 | 2019 |
| style="background:Template:Party color; color: white" | 5 | File:Bezalel Smotrich (portrait).jpg | Bezalel Smotrich | 2019 | 2023 |
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Election results
Knesset members list
| Knesset term | Seats | Members |
|---|---|---|
| 2015–2019 | 2 | Uri Ariel, Bezalel Smotrich |
| 2019 | 2 | Bezalel Smotrich, Ofir Sofer |
| 2019–2020 | 2 | Bezalel Smotrich, Ofir Sofer |
| 2020–2021 | 2 | Bezalel Smotrich, Ofir Sofer |
| 2021–2022 | 5 | Bezalel Smotrich, Michal Waldiger, Simcha Rothman, Orit Strook, Ofir SoferTemplate:Efn |
| 2022–2023 | 7 | Bezalel Smotrich, Ofir Sofer, Orit Strook, Simcha Rothman, Michal Waldiger, Ohad Tal, Moshe Solomon, Zvi Sukkot (replaced Smotrich on 5 February 2023)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
See also
Notes
References
External links
Template:Israeli political parties Template:Religious Zionism Template:Authority control
- Pages with broken file links
- 1998 establishments in Israel
- 2023 disestablishments in Israel
- Anti-Arabism in Israel
- Conservative parties in Israel
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- Far-right political parties in Israel
- Jewish supremacy
- Kahanism
- Organizations that oppose LGBTQ rights in Israel
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- Political parties disestablished in 2023
- Political parties established in 1998
- Political parties in Israel
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