The Free Centre (, ''HaMerkaz HaHofshi'') was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

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 ...

. It is one of the forerunners of the modern-day

Likud Likud (, ), officially known as Likud – National Liberal Movement (), is a major Right-wing politics, right-wing, political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon in an alliance with several right-wing par ...

History

The party was created on 29 March 1967 during the sixth Knesset when Shmuel Tamir led a breakaway of three

Herut Herut () was the major conservative nationalist political party in Israel from 1948 until its formal merger into Likud in 1988. It was an adherent of Revisionist Zionism. Some of their policies were compared to those of the Nazi party. Early y ...

members (the other two being Eliezer Shostak and Avraham Tiar) after a leadership dispute with

Menachem Begin Menachem Begin ( ''Menaḥem Begin'', ; (Polish documents, 1931–1937); ; 16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992) was an Israeli politician, founder of both Herut and Likud and the prime minister of Israel. Before the creation of the state of Isra ...

. Before the next election they were joined by Shlomo Cohen-Tzidon who had also left Gahal and failed in an attempt to create a one-man parliamentary group named the ''Popular Faction''. In the 1969 elections the Free Centre only just passed the

electoral threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of votes that a candidate or political party requires before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can operate in various ...

of 1%, receiving 1.2% of the vote and winning two seats, which were taken by Tamir and Shostak. Before the 1973 elections it joined the

alliance formed by

, the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

(which had formerly been allied as

Gahal Gahal (, an acronym for ''Gush Herut–Liberalim'' (Hebrew: ), ''lit.'' ''Freedom–Liberals Bloc'') was the main right-leaning political alliance in Israel, ranging from the centre-right to right-wing, from its founding in 1965 until the establi ...

), the National List and the Movement for Greater Israel. The new alliance won 39 seats, with four taken by the Free Centre; Tamir and Shostak were joined by

Ehud Olmert Ehud Olmert (; , ; born 30 September 1945) is an Israeli politician and lawyer who served as the prime minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009. The son of a former Herut politician, Olmert was first elected to the Knesset for Likud in 1973, at th ...

and Akiva Nof. In 1974 internal conflict led to Shostak and

leaving the Free Centre to establish the Independent Centre, which later merged into the La'am faction. Another dispute led to Tamir and Nof leaving Likud and re-establishing the party as an independent faction on 26 October 1976 during the eighth Knesset. Both resigned from the Knesset on 25 January 1977 and joined the Democratic Movement for Change. They were both elected to the ninth Knesset as members of the new party, though Nof later defected back to Likud after a spell in Ahva.

Knesset members

References

External links

Free Center
Knesset website {{Authority control Political parties established in 1967 Defunct political parties in Israel Zionist political parties in Israel Political parties disestablished in 1977 Revisionist Zionism