Herut – The National Movement

Herut – The National Movement was formed as an attempt to restore a distinct Revisionist alternative after the original Herut had been incorporated into Likud. Under Benny Begin, it opposed territorial concessions and a Palestinian state while supporting a free economy, competition, and reduced government bureaucracy.[1][4]

Its principal electoral activity consisted of participation in the National Union list in 1999 and an independent campaign under Michael Kleiner in 2003. It briefly held one seat in the 15th Knesset but did not pass the electoral threshold in 2003.[5][3]

The name Herut has deep roots in Israeli political history. The original Herut Movement was established in June 1948 by members of the Irgun on the basis of Ze'ev Jabotinsky's Revisionist Zionist ideology.[2] Led for most of its existence by Menachem Begin, it became a major opposition party, advocated a Jewish state on both banks of the Jordan River, and strongly criticized extensive government intervention in the economy.[2]

In 1965, Herut joined the Liberal Party to form Gahal. Gahal became part of Likud in 1973, and Herut ceased to exist as a separate party when Likud formally became a unified party in 1988.[2] Benny Begin's later party revived the older movement's name and political tradition, but the available sources describe it as a revival rather than an uninterrupted continuation.[1]

At a press conference in Tel Aviv on December 29, 1998, Benny Begin announced that he would leave Likud, run for prime minister, and establish a new right-wing movement.[6] He argued that the national camp needed another candidate and criticized territorial concessions, particularly implementation of the Wye Agreement, which he warned could encourage Yasser Arafat to declare a Palestinian state. Begin expressed hope that fellow MKs Michael Kleiner and David Ra'am would join the movement.[6]

The party's name signaled a return to the roots of Menachem Begin's original Herut and distinguished the new movement from a Likud its founders believed had departed from those principles.[1] Its political and security position was summarized as "not one inch": opposition to transferring territory in the Land of Israel and to establishing a Palestinian state. It also advocated a free economy, free competition, and reduced government bureaucracy.[4]

Retrospective ynet reporting dates the faction's formation to 1998, while the contemporaneous Globes report documents its formal public announcement on December 29 of that year. These accounts support treating late 1998 as the party's formal founding period.[4][6]

In March 1999, Herut, Tkuma, and Moledet moved toward unification, agreeing on a joint platform and the first seven places on a shared candidate list.[7] Benny Begin was placed first, Rehavam Zeevi second, and Hanan Porat third. The resulting National Union list contested the May 17, 1999 election to the 15th Knesset.[1][7]

Begin initially intended to run for prime minister alongside his Knesset candidacy, but he withdrew on May 16, the day before the election. His withdrawal, together with those of Yitzhak Mordechai and Azmi Bishara, ensured that the prime-ministerial contest would be decided without a runoff.[8] Before withdrawing, Begin had been polling at less than five percent.[9]

The official final results list National Union as receiving 100,181 votes, three percent of the total, and four mandates.[10] Herut held one of those seats, represented by Begin.[1][5] Deeming the result a failure, Begin resigned after the election, left politics, and returned to scientific work.[1][11] He described the result as leaving him a public representative "without a public."[12]

Following Benny Begin's resignation, Michael Kleiner became Herut's Knesset representative.[1] In 2000, Moledet and Tkuma joined Yisrael Beiteinu in a technical parliamentary bloc called National Union–Yisrael Beiteinu. Kleiner declined to join that arrangement and retained a separate Herut faction.[1]

In February 2000, Kleiner publicly announced that Herut was leaving the National Union alliance and would again operate as an independent party.[5] This allowed the Herut name to continue in the 15th Knesset after the alliance that had contested the 1999 election was reorganized.

Herut contested the 2003 election independently under Kleiner's leadership. Baruch Marzel ran on the list with Kleiner; ynet later identified Marzel as a former aide to Rabbi Meir Kahane. This described Marzel's personal background rather than Herut's platform as a whole.[4]

The party received 36,202 votes, amounting to 1.1% of the total, below the 1.5% electoral threshold.[3] Herut therefore won no seats in the 16th Knesset. A later analysis estimated that if those voters had instead supported National Union, that list would have gained an additional seat at Balad's expense.[13]

Herut's significance lay chiefly in its attempt to reestablish a distinct Revisionist political banner after the original Herut ceased to exist separately within Likud.[1][2] Its parliamentary impact was limited: it held one seat through the National Union list in the 15th Knesset and failed to enter the Knesset when it ran independently in 2003.[5][3] The available sources therefore support describing the later Herut as an ideological revival rather than an institutionally continuous successor to the original movement.

During the 2003 election campaign, Herut petitioned the High Court of Justice after Central Elections Committee chair Justice Misha'el Cheshin disqualified two campaign broadcasts.[14] One was a radio jingle using the melody of "Hatikvah," Israel's national anthem. The other paired the same jingle with footage of an Israeli flag above the Knesset gradually transforming into a Palestinian flag. Cheshin found that the broadcasts demeaned the anthem and flag and could arouse passions or incite disorder.[14]

In HCJ 212/03, decided on January 16, 2003, the Supreme Court upheld the disqualification by a majority. Justices Eliyahu Matza and Tova Strasberg-Cohen concluded that the broadcasts crossed permissible limits and could harm public order.[14] President Aharon Barak dissented, finding no near certainty of sufficiently severe harm to public feelings to justify prior restraint of political expression during an election. The case also addressed whether section 137 of the Elections Law barred judicial review. Barak held that the High Court's authority under section 15 of Basic Law: The Judiciary prevailed insofar as the ordinary statute purported to exclude High Court review.[14]