Yisrael Beiteinu (Hebrew: יִשְׂרָאֵל בֵּיתֵנוּ, lit. 'Israel [is] Our Home') is a right-wing political party in Israel. The party's base was originally secular Russian-speaking immigrants, although support from that demographic is in decline. The party describes itself as "a national movement with the clear vision to follow in the bold path of Ze'ev Jabotinsky", the founder of Revisionist Zionism. In the past, it has primarily represented immigrants from the former Soviet Union, although it has since expanded its appeal to the broader Jewish Israeli population.
It takes a hard line towards the peace process and the integration of Israeli Arabs. Its main platform includes a recognition of the two-state solution, the creation of a Palestinian state that would include an exchange of some largely Arab-inhabited parts of Israel for largely Jewish-inhabited parts of the West Bank. It encourages socio-economic opportunities for new immigrants, in conjunction with efforts to increase aliyah.
The party won 15 seats in the 2009 election, its most to date, making it the third-largest party in the 18th Knesset. In the 2020 election the party won seven seats. Despite previously having formed part of the Likud-led bloc in the Twentieth Knesset and even running on a joint slate with Likud for the Nineteenth Knesset, leader Avigdor Lieberman has more recently been vocal in his opposition to Benjamin Netanyahu.
Contents
History
Yisrael Beiteinu has its origins in the Israel of the late 1990s, when former Director-General of the Prime Minister's Office, Avigdor Lieberman was greatly disappointed by his former boss Benjamin Netanyahu and his negotiation with the Palestinian Authority. Netanyahu signed the Wye River Memorandum, which featured the division of the city of Hebron. This move was viewed by many right-wing Israelis, including many of Lieberman's own Russian-speaking community, as a betrayal of their values by Netanyahu. At the time of the Wye River Memorandum, the Russian-speaking community in Israel was mainly represented by the center-right Yisrael BaAliyah, led by Natan Sharansky, who decided not to pull his party out of Netanyahu's coalition despite the division of Hebron, which further disappointed Lieberman and other right-wing Russian-speakers. This disappointment led to two Yisrael BaAliyah Knesset members, Michael Nudelman and Yuri Stern, breaking away from the party to form their own party Aliyah.
For the 1999 legislative election, Lieberman, Nudelman and Stern formed Yisrael Beiteinu, a party whose goal was to represent the right wing of the Russian-speaking community in Israel. The new party won four seats. Due to Ehud Barak's victory in the 1999 election, the new party sat in the opposition in the new Knesset. On 1 February 2000, while sitting in the opposition, the party joined an alliance with the National Union, itself an alliance of mainly Religious Zionist right-wing parties led by Binyamin Elon, both parties remained fairly independent. The joint list joined Ariel Sharon's new unity government formed after the 2001 Israeli prime ministerial election. However, it attempted to quit the government just a few months later after Sharon's government gave another neighborhood of Hebron to the Palestinian authority. This move was delayed by Rehavam Ze'evi's assassination, but the joint list, now led by Lieberman, left the coalition in 2002 anyway.
In the 2003 Knesset election the Lieberman-led joint list won seven seats, with his Yisrael Beiteinu being given four of them. The alliance joined Ariel Sharon's government, and Lieberman was made Minister of Transport; however, the party left the government on 6 June 2004 in response to the disengagement plan. On 1 February 2006, shortly before the election that year, the party split from National Union in order to run alone. The two parties believed that they would each increase their power if they ran alone, because Yisrael Beiteinu mainly targeted Israel's right-wing secular Russian-speaking community, while the National Union mainly targeted Israel's national-religious community.
Organization
The supreme body in the party is the party conference, which convenes every four years. The party members elect party office-holders including the members of the party arbitration panel, the permanent commission, the municipal commission, and the comptroller.
Yisrael Beiteinu runs for local elections under the name of the city that they run in, such as Petah Tikva Beiteinu ("Petah Tikva Our Home").
In September 2019, Eli Avidar announced that the party intends to set up an LGBT caucus after the September 2019 Israeli legislative election.
Platform and policies
The party has been described as occupying the far-right of the political spectrum, while other sources also describing them as right-wing. Some sources have also described the party as shifting closer to the centre-right in recent years.
Founding principles
Yisrael Beiteinu's platform begins with a description of its 10 main principles which it calls its "ten commandments":
Security policy based on initiative and preemptive action.
Solution of the conflict through a comprehensive regional agreement and the exchange of territories and populations.
Without loyalty there is no citizenship – Military or National Service for everyone who reaches the age of 18.
Death penalty for terrorists.
Adopting the Shamgar Report (which restricts the things the Israeli government can offer as part of a prisoner exchange) as the sole basis for all future prisoner exchange.
In the case of a dilemma between the unity of the land and the unity of the people, the unity of the people comes first.
Yes to Judaism – no to religious coercion.
Support for Jewish settlement as part of the Zionist ideal and concept of security.
Immigration of Diaspora Jews as a central national goal.
A socio-economic ideal in line with Ze'ev Jabotinsky's five basic needs that should be guaranteed by the government: Food, Housing, Clothing, Education and Healthcare.
Relations with Israeli Arabs and Palestinians
One of the party's main policies is that of drawing the borders in such a way that areas with large Arab populations, such as the Triangle area and the Wadi Ara, both gained by Israel as part of the 1949 Armistice Agreements, would be transferred to Arab sovereignty. Known as the Lieberman Plan, such an arrangement would mean that the majority of Jews would live in Israel and the majority of Arabs would live in a future Palestinian state. In most cases, there is no physical population transfer or demolition of houses, but creating a new border where none existed before, according to demographics.
United Nations General Assembly Resolution 55/153, written in 2001, explicitly states: "When part of the territory of a state is transferred by that state to another state, the successor state shall attribute its nationality to the persons concerned who have their habitual residence in the transferred territory and the predecessor state shall withdraw its nationality from such persons", and Lieberman claims that this means Israel can legally transfer territory and citizens as a means of peace and ultimate conflict resolution.
Avigdor Lieberman argues that the Arab residents see themselves not as Israelis, but as Palestinians, and should, therefore, be encouraged to join the Palestinian Authority. Lieberman has presented this proposal as part of a potential peace deal aimed at establishing two separate national entities, one for Jews in Israel and the other for Arabs in Palestine. However, he is known to have an affinity for, and is popular among, the Druze population (the only non-Jewish, Arabic-speaking male population to be fully drafted into the IDF), and has attracted a number of Druze voters, including some in the Golan Heights who voted for the party in protest. Druze candidate Hamad Amar was elected to the Knesset on the party's list in 2009.
Yisrael Beiteinu played a crucial role in passing a law that would fine bodies that receive state funding being spent in recognition of Nakba Day, and events that call for the end of Israel as a Jewish State.
Security policy
Yisrael Beiteinu supports a hawkish security policy, emphasizing preemptive strikes against Hamas and other opponents of Israel. Yisrael Beiteinu's security policy, as laid out in the party's platform, is:
Renewing the discontinued policy of the targeted killing of terror leaders.
Reducing the amount of tax money collected by Israel given to the Palestinian Authority in proportion to the amount of money given to terrorists sitting in Israeli prisons and their families.
Ending the transfer of Qatari funds to Hamas by the Israeli government.
Death penalty for terrorists.
Ending the policy of returning terrorist corpses to their families.
Demolishing the houses of all terrorists, not only terrorists who have committed murder.
Revocation of residency from citizens of East Jerusalem who were convicted of terrorism.
Deportation of those who systematically incite terrorism from Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip
Religion and state
Yisrael Beiteinu's platform states that the party opposes the separation of religion and state. Its platform says that in a country where religion and nationality are two parts of the same whole, religion and state cannot be separated. However, Yisrael Beiteinu's platform states that religion should be separated from political activity, the party believes that religion should not be a source of income and instead should be preserved as a source of "inspiration and belief" for every Jew. Despite the platform's statement that the party opposes separation of religion and state, the party is considered a force for secularism in Israel, and is strongly opposed to the religious policies of Israel's Haredi parties.
Yisrael Beiteinu's policies on Religion and State, as stated by their platform are as follows:
Compulsory national or military service for all Haredi Jews.
Permitting city Rabbis to perform conversions. Currently this right is reserved for the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.
The opening of the registration areas for marriage, so that couples can marry in any city and with any Rabbi that they desire.
The operation of public transportation on Shabbat, in neighborhoods with demand for it and without significant religious population.
Opposition to the "Supermarket law", which bans the operation of businesses on Shabbat.
The party opposes DNA tests for Jewish converts or for Jews of Russian descent.
Economic policies
Yisrael Beiteinu favors a broadly economically liberal vision of the economy. Its platform opposes increasing taxes and supports a decrease in regulations and an increase in support to small businesses. Despite this broadly liberal view of the economy, the party supports an increase in spending for healthcare and its flagship economic policy is increasing the minimum pension given to pensioners to 70% of the minimum wage.
Yisrael Beiteinu's solution for Israel's housing crisis is cancelling the tax on the usage of pension funds of young couples who want to buy a home with the money.
Knesset members
Yisrael Beiteinu currently has six Knesset members: