The Left Camp of Israel (, ''Maḥaneh Smol LeYisrael'') was a

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

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 was also known as Sheli (), an

abbreviation An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening (linguistics), shortening, contraction (grammar), contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened for ...

for "Peace for Israel" (, ''Shalom LeYisrael'').

Background

The party was formed prior to the

1977 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1977. Africa * 1977 Afars and Issas Constituent Assembly election * 1977 Algerian legislative election * 1977 Gambian general election * 1976–1977 Guinea-Bissau legislative election * 1977 Malagasy ...

by the merger of Meri, Moked, the Independent Socialist Faction and some members of the

Black Panthers The Black Panther Party (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a Marxist–Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, California ...

. It won two seats in the elections, which were held on a rotation basis by five party members;

Uri Avnery Uri Avnery (, also transliterated Uri Avneri; 10 September 1923 – 20 August 2018) was a German-born Israeli writer, journalist, politician, and activist, who founded the Gush Shalom peace movement. A member of the Irgun as a teenager and a vet ...

(previously an MK for Meri), Aryeh Eliav (an MK for the Independent Socialist Faction in the previous Knesset),

Meir Pa'il Meir Pa'il (‎; 19 June 1926 – 15 September 2015) was an Israeli politician, military historian and a former colonel in the Israel Defense Forces. Biography Meir Pilevsky (later Pa'il) was born in Jerusalem during the Mandate era. His pa ...

(an ex-Moked MK), Saadia Marciano and

Walid Haj Yahia Walid Haj Yahia (, ; 1936 – 21 March 2015), also known as Walid Sadik, was an Israeli Arab politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the Left Camp of Israel and Meretz. Biography Born in Tayibe during the Mandate era, Haj Yahia ...

. Other prominent members of Sheli were the former deputy chief of staff of the Israeli army Matti Peled and Ran Cohen, who later served as an MK for Ratz and Meretz and a government minister. The party, formed by a merger of leftist non-communist groups, was founded by Eliav, who was formerly secretary general of the Labor Party. Sheli called for negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organization based on mutual recognition and for the establishment of an Arab Palestinian state. On 11 November 1980, Marciano broke away from the party to form a single-member faction, later renamed Equality in Israel – Panthers. On 19 May 1981 he was joined by former

Dash The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

MK, Mordechai Elgrably. The new party was later renamed as the Unity Party.Mergers and Splits Among Parliamentary Groups
Knesset website The party failed to cross the

election 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 w ...

in the 1981 election and subsequently disappeared, though many former party members joined the Progressive List for Peace and Ratz.

References

External links

Left Camp of Israel (Sheli)
Knesset website Defunct political parties in Israel Socialist parties in Israel Far-left politics in Israel Far-left political parties Political parties disestablished in the 1980s {{Israel-party-stub