Left Faction

The Left Faction was formed on 20 February 1952 (during the second Knesset) as a breakaway from Mapam's faction, by the three MKs far-left of Mapam, including Rostam Bastuni (the first Israeli Arab MK representing a Zionist party), Adolf Berman and Moshe Sneh established the Left Faction. It sat separate from the Mapam faction in the Knesset, though its MKs remained as Mapam members.^[1]

Mapam was shaken by the Prague Trials, a series of show trials in which mostly Jewish leaders of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia were purged, and that falsely implicated Mapam's envoy in Prague, Mordechai Oren, as part of a Zionist conspiracy. This, and later Nikita Khrushchev's Secret Speech at the 20th Party Congress in the Soviet Union, led to Mapam moving away from some of their more radical left wing positions, and towards democratic socialism.

On 26 December 1952, Mapam's Council convened to vote on motions where the Left Faction found themselves in the minority. Berman and Sneh were dismissed from their positions in the party committee, which they unsuccessfully appealed the decision, after which they accused Mapam of being controlled by 'Mapai agents for the benefit and enjoyment of the bourgeoisie'.^[2] On 28 January 1953, Mapam voted to expel Berman and Sneh for their 'fundamental opposition to the socialist Zionist principles' of the party, for trying to 'undermine the party's institutions' and for supporting the ruling of the Prague Trials.^[3][1]

Work was made to turn the faction into the 'Left Party'.^[4] Sneh proclaimed that it "will further prove that it will play a pioneering role in the national and social liberation of the Jewish people and in the role of saving the State of Israel, its independence, security and future".^[5]

In March 1953, the Left Faction voted against a law that allowed the state to expropriate the land of absent Arabs who had been expelled in the Nakba. Maki also voted against the law, while Mapam abstained.^[6] On 24 March, Rostam Bastuni returned to Mapam.^[7]

In November 1953, although Sneh had ruled out joining the communist party, Maki, it was revealed that he had tried to admit the Left Faction to Maki, only to be declined because Maki did not accept internal factions.^[8]

On 23 August 1954, however, Mapam's moderate faction, including Moshe Aram, Yisrael Bar-Yehuda, Yitzhak Ben-Aharon and Aharon Zisling, set up Ahdut HaAvoda-Poale Zion. Realising that the Left Faction had no opportunity to grow, the Left Faction began negotiations to merge into Maki, which succeeded when Sneh was given 4th place on Maki's list fo the 1955 elections.^[9]

In October, the party's committee approved a merger with Maki, and the Left Faction formally dissolved on 1 November 1954.^[10][11]

• Party history Knesset website