Meretz

Meretz (מרצ, Hebrew: "vitality", "energy") was an Israeli political party, considered to be on the "left" and secular. It was formed in 1992 by the merger of three other parties, RATZ (רץ, Movement for Civil Rights and Peace), Mapam (מפ"ם, Israeli Workers Party) and Shinui (שינוי, Change). In 1996 they officially registered as a single party, but in 1997 part of Shinui (under the leadership of Avraham Poraz) left to form a separate movement.

Disbanding of Meretz

In December 2003, Meretz was disbanded in order to merge with Yossi Beilin's SHAHAR (שח"ר) movement and Roman Bronfman's "The Democratic Choice" party. The new party will be called Yachad (יח"ד);, which literally means "together", but is also an abbreviation of "Democrat Social Israel" in Hebrew. The original name was to be Yaad, which means "goal" in Hebrew, but was replaced because the meaning of Yaad in Russian is poison.

Related Topics:
Yossi Beilin - Roman Bronfman - Yachad - Russian

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In March 2004 a party leadership race was run between Meretz's Ran Cohen and Shahar's Yossi Beilin, with Yossi Beilin emerging the victor. Following the victory of Beilin and Yachad's radicalization, many former Meretz supporters withdrew their support from the new party.

Related Topics:
March 2004 - Ran Cohen - Yossi Beilin

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