Shinui Party ("Movement for Change," in Hebrew)

views updated

SHINUI PARTY ("Movement for Change," in Hebrew)

Israeli center-left, ultra-secular political party, founded in 1974 by Amnon Rubinstein. Shinui stood for defending the interests of the Israeli middle class by supporting a liberal economy and advocated a peace process between Israel and the Arab countries. In the July 1981 elections the party won two seats in the Knesset. In 1988 the Shinui electoral program on the Palestinian question was based on three principles: "1) peace in exchange for the territories; 2) demilitarization of the territories and rectification of the1967 border; 3) creation of a Jordano-Palestinian confederation." In 1992 the party merged with RATZ (Movement for Civil Rights and Peace) and MAPAM to form the Meretz bloc. In that year's elections, Meretz obtained twelve seats in the Knesset, of which two went to Shinui. These seats were filled by Avraham Poraz and Amnon Rubinstein. On 18 May 1999, the day after the general elections in which the Labor Party leader Ehud Barak became prime minister, the Shinui list, headed by Yosef ("Tommy") Lapid, won six of the ten seats taken by Meretz. In 2003 it won sixteen seats.

SEE ALSO Lapid, Yosef (Tommy);MAPAM;Meretz Party;Movement for Civil Rights and Peace;Poraz, Avraham;Rubinstein, Amnon.