Agriculture and Development (, ''Zira'ah wa-tatwir''; , ''Hakla'ut VePituah'') was an Arab satellite list in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

History

Agriculture and Development was an

Israeli Arab The Arab citizens of Israel form the country's largest ethnic minority. Their community mainly consists of former Palestinian Citizenship Order 1925, Mandatory Palestine citizens (and their descendants) who continued to inhabit the territory ...

organisation formed to fight the 1951 elections. Like other Israeli Arab parties at the time, it was associated with

David Ben-Gurion David Ben-Gurion ( ; ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary List of national founders, national founder and first Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister of the State of Israel. As head of the Jewish Agency ...

Mapai Mapai (, an abbreviation for , ''Mifleget Poalei Eretz Yisrael'', ) was a Labor Zionist and democratic socialist political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger into the Israeli Labor Party in January ...

party, as Ben-Gurion was keen to include Israeli Arabs in the functioning of the state in order to prove

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

s and

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

s could co-exist peacefully and productively. It drew its support from Arabs living in the central area of Israel. In the elections, the party won only one seat, taken by its leader, Faras Hamdan. Because of its association with

, the party joined the governing coalition in all four governments of the second Knesset. In the 1955 elections the party won one seat, retained by Hamdan, and was again part of the coalition. In the 1959 elections the party again won one seat, and joined the coalition, with Mahmud Al-Nashaf replacing Hamdan as leader. However, the party did not run in the 1961 elections.

List of Knesset members

References

External links

Party history
Knesset website {{Israeli political parties Arab political parties in Israel Defunct political parties in Israel Political parties established in 1951 1951 establishments in Israel Political parties disestablished in 1961