La'am

La'am as a political faction was the third-largest component of the Likud bloc.[1] It was formed in March 1976 when a group from the Land of Israel Movement joined the Independent Center and the State List, the latter led by Yigael Hurvitz.[1] One account describes La'am as a coalition of right-wing factions that included the hawkish wing of Labor once headed by David Ben-Gurion.[2] A separate analysis calls it "the one defection from the Labor camp that moved as a body across camps."[3]

Sources differ modestly on the precise constituent groups. A 1981 American Jewish Committee memorandum names the Free Center Party, the State List, and the Greater Land of Israel Movement as La'am's founding elements, while Ze'ev Geizel's account in the Lookstein series names Merkaz Atzmai (Independent Center) rather than the Free Center Party.[4][5] The two accounts may be describing related but differently named groupings; the available sources do not resolve the discrepancy.

Two retrospective accounts apply the name La'am to earlier stages of the right-wing alignment. One says Likud "acquired La'am in 1969,"[3] while another says Menachem Begin extended the Herut–Liberal coalition to include La'am in 1973.[2] Lookstein instead dates the formal La'am bloc to 1976 and describes its precursor groups as joining the broader Likud alignment in 1973.[4] The earlier dates therefore appear to describe precursor alignments or retrospective labeling rather than the formal 1976 faction. The Library of Congress country study identifies La'am — rendering the name as "For the Nation" — as one of four components of the Likud Bloc alongside the Free Center, Herut, and Gahal.[6]

The Land of Israel Movement, whose members contributed significantly to La'am's formation, was founded shortly after the Six-Day War with the aim of Israel's permanent retention of the territories occupied in that conflict.[1] Its membership was ideologically diverse, drawing from both the political right and left, including a strong contingent from the left-wing Ha-Kibbutz ha-Me'uhad and most of the National Religious Party's Young Guard.[1] Its September 1967 manifesto argued for retaining the area within the June 1967 ceasefire lines as the state's permanent borders, identifying immigration and intensive settlement as the keys to integrating the newly held territories.[1]

The movement's territorial convictions shaped La'am's internal character after 1976. In the Ninth Knesset, Moshe Shamir served as the Land of Israel group's representative within La'am, and after Likud came to power the majority of La'am supported the Land of Israel group's hawkish position on territorial retention.[1] A separate internal voice came from Zalman Shoval, identified as a member of the La'am faction within Likud. Regarding the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — Shoval urged Likud to demonstrate willingness for territorial compromise as a way to promote peace rather than leave the party; he had held the fifteenth place on the previous Knesset list.[7]

According to the Encyclopedia.com account, La'am gained eight seats in the May 1977 elections to the Ninth Knesset, with Moshe Shamir representing the Land of Israel contingent within it.[1] Likud won 43 seats overall, while the Labor-led Alignment fell to 32, nineteen fewer than in 1973.[8] The Library of Congress country study describes the election as an "earthquake" that ended Labor's roughly half-century of political dominance.[6]

Following the election, the U.S. Department of State described La'am as a smaller party within the Likud bloc, which at that point was composed of Herut, the Liberals, and La'am.[9] The bloc formed a governing coalition with the National Religious Party, Agudat Israel, and other parties, with Menachem Begin becoming prime minister as head of Likud.[9] La'am's eight reserved places on Likud's electoral list for the Ninth Knesset were negotiated under a pre-election agreement; for the Tenth Knesset that allocation fell to four, and for the Eleventh to three.[4]

The Land of Israel Movement members within La'am faced a decisive test when the Begin administration signed the Camp David Accords in September 1978. The original Land of Israel Movement — which had continued separately as a nonparty forum under Zvi Shiloah, associating in September 1977 with Gush Emunim and the En Vered Circle, a group of Labor veterans from the moshavim committed to extending Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria — withdrew support from the Begin government following the Accords.[1] Moshe Shamir eventually left Likud over the decision to return the Sinai to Egypt and became one of the founders of the Tehiya party.[10]

La'am was formally absorbed into Herut in 1985, ending its existence as a distinct faction within the Likud bloc.[4] Throughout its existence it received reserved places on Likud's electoral lists.[4] It was distinguished from internal Likud factions such as the Levy and Sharon blocs and was counted instead among the bloc's components alongside Herut and the Liberals.[2]

Entirely distinct from the political faction, La'am (לע"מ) is also the Hebrew acronym of Israel's Government Press Office (Lishkat Ha-Itonut Ha-Memshaltit), the state body responsible for providing professional services to Israeli and foreign media, operating as a government news agency, and documenting national events.[11] The office traces its institutional roots to 1922, when the Zionist Organization established a "Jewish Press Bureau" in Jerusalem to maintain contact with the press on behalf of the Zionist movement, alongside the British Mandate government's own press office.[12]

The GPO director holds responsibility for managing the office, including public diplomacy; setting policy toward Israeli and foreign press in accordance with government guidelines; and coordinating with the Foreign Affairs and Defense ministries, the IDF Spokesperson, and the Military Censor.[13] The office's foreign press department serves as a communication channel between hundreds of foreign correspondents based in Israel and state institutions, with its stated aims including leveraging ongoing contact with foreign media for Israeli public diplomacy and improving Israel's international standing.[14]

The GPO also sees itself as a professional mentor for government spokespersons, with a Spokespersons' Forum established to address professional issues including the drafting of an ethical code and establishment of an ethics committee.[11] A handbook published by the office in 2016 presents itself as a practical guide to spokespersons' communications work, with particular emphasis on the challenges posed by new media. Its intended readers include government and public-sector spokespersons, civil-service managers, journalists, and communications professionals.[11]

The GPO's Photography Department was founded in 1948 by David Eldan, on the order of Moshe Pearlman, then Director of the Foreign Press Office, with the purpose of preserving and distributing footage of the newly founded state and providing a record of daily events.[15] GPO photographers serve as official photographers of the State of Israel, documenting national leaders, significant events, and daily life with national or documentary significance.[15]

The GPO's National Photography Collection contains more than 160,000 archived still photographs — some dating from before Israel's founding — as well as thousands of hours of video footage dating from 1998.[15] A centenary account credits the office with accumulating tens of millions of still photographs and thousands of hours of video across its full history, having handled tens of thousands of Israeli and foreign journalists across hundreds of events in times of both peace and war.[12] After a selection process from this much larger archive, more than 185,000 photographs were chosen for the formal National Photo Collection, and approximately 15,000 video clips were edited from around 7,000 tapes.[12] The collection documents events including the liberation of Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War, the Eichmann trial, battles of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and the peace agreements with Egypt.[12]

In May 2011, the Israeli government decided that the public could use photographs from the National Photo Collection without charge, aiming to encourage public exposure to the country's photographed history.[16] Globes reported that the collection then held about 200,000 digitized photos; previously, rights to use roughly 15,000–20,000 images per year were sold for a total of approximately NIS 400,000.[16] The decision made the images accessible to interested users, including newspapers and advertising companies in Israel and abroad, subject to copyright, privacy, and other legal conditions.[16]

A 2011 advisory committee examined GPO press credentials and recommended unifying the different cards issued by La'am under the name "La'am Card – GPO Card," applicable to people working in communications, including freelance writers.[17] The proposed criteria removed some previous restrictions, including full-time employment and high circulation requirements. The committee's view was that the credential should facilitate access to government information sources rather than define journalism as a profession; the report noted that the recommendations did not expressly define eligibility for bloggers, leaving that determination to the office's discretion.[17]

The GPO regularly organizes international press conferences and journalist visits. In December 2022, following a three-year pause largely attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, La'am resumed hosting such conferences: approximately 180 Christian journalists from dozens of countries, including the United States, England, and the Netherlands, attended a Christian media conference organized with the Ministry of Jerusalem and Heritage and the Foreign Ministry. A separate conference for about 70 Jewish journalists and online influencers was organized with the Ministry of Jerusalem and Heritage and the Diaspora Ministry.[18]

Following Hamas's October 7, 2023 terrorist attack, more than 1,500 foreign journalists arrived in Israel.[19] La'am organized visits for foreign journalists together with the IDF Spokesperson's Unit and the Foreign Ministry, including a visit to Kibbutz Be'eri by approximately 50 journalists, intended to allow reporters to witness the sites of Hamas's attacks firsthand.[19] Access was subject to military instructions and privacy restrictions, and GPO director Nitzan Chen told the visiting group that following military instructions took precedence over the stories they might obtain.[19]

Sources use La'am inconsistently when describing the early chronology of the right-wing alignment. One Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs account says Likud acquired La'am in 1969, while another places its inclusion in the Herut–Liberal coalition in 1973.[3][2] Lookstein and Encyclopedia.com, by contrast, place the formal creation of La'am in 1976.[4][1] The earlier dates appear to concern precursor groups or retrospective use of the name, but the sources do not explicitly explain the discrepancy. Sources also differ over whether the faction included the Independent Center or elements of the Free Center Party.[4][5]

The Encyclopedia.com account attributes eight seats to La'am in 1977, while the official election table reproduced by the Jewish Virtual Library records only the Likud list's overall result of 43 seats and does not list La'am separately.[1][8] The figures therefore describe different organizational levels rather than separate ballot lists.

Regarding the Government Press Office, a 2016 Ynet report alleged that La'am's foreign press department translated and distributed to foreign correspondents political statements from the Prime Minister's Office criticizing domestic opponents, including Naftali Bennett, Yair Lapid, and Transport Minister Israel Katz.[14] The report characterized the use of the foreign-media channel for political attacks as improper. La'am director Nitzan Chen stated that the office avoided political matters, acknowledged that some releases might be interpreted as political, and said potentially problematic releases would be reviewed and removed from its website if warranted.[14]