Israeli Labor Party

The historic Israeli left party of Ben-Gurion and Rabin, dominant until 1977, now diminished.

Overview

Labor descends from Mapai of David Ben-Gurion, the state building party of 1948, in the Alignment that governed Israel three decades with founding generation and Rabin premierships. The 1965-1968 unification created the Labor Party proper. Yitzhak Rabin second government signed the Oslo Accords in 1993 and his 1995 assassination by a right wing extremist marked the peace era tragedy. Barak, and later Peres presidency terms, faded as the party fell from dozens of seats to single digits, merging into the Zionist Union and Labor list attempts. It remains the historic social democratic and union linked tradition, out of power but central to the founding story.