The Greens (Israel)

The Greens sought to place environmental conditions alongside security and borders on Israel’s political agenda, arguing that the country faced severe environmental crises requiring political attention.[2] Its priorities included combating air and water pollution, protecting beaches, expanding recycling, conserving natural resources, and promoting urban development that better protected the environment.[4]

The party was distinct from both the Green Movement and Green Leaf, despite their similar names.[5] Green Leaf’s platform centered on civil liberties and cannabis legalization, whereas The Greens emphasized environmental policies.[6] In January 2013, Greens leader Amir Meltzer said the party opposed unrestricted drug use while supporting drug use for medical purposes only.[6]

The Greens were founded in 1997, shortly after the Maccabiah disaster, and initially pursued municipal representation in Tel Aviv before becoming a political party.[1] In the 1998 municipal elections, they won two seats on the Tel Aviv city council; their representation increased to four seats in 2003.[3] Green representatives in Haifa numbered five in 1998 and six in 2003, while Green representatives also entered the councils of Ramat Hasharon, Shoham, and Petah Tikva.[3]

The party first contested a Knesset election in 1999 under the name “The Greens Party for Quality of Life and the Environment in Israel.”[3] Official results recorded the list as “Israel Green Party (HaYerukim),” with 13,292 votes, or 0.4% of the vote.[7] It failed to cross the electoral threshold.[3]

The candidate listing for the 2003 election identified the party as “Greens,” named Pe’er Wiesner as its leader, and listed seven candidates.[8] The party again failed to enter the Knesset.[3] For the March 2006 election, it appeared as “Greens (Hayerukim),” again under Wiesner’s leadership.[9] Its share of the vote rose to approximately 1.5%, close to but still below the electoral threshold.[3]

By 2006, the party had fielded representatives in 15 local authorities across Israel, and Wiesner was serving as a deputy mayor of Tel Aviv.[1] He had joined Mayor Ron Huldai’s municipal coalition in 2004 after previously opposing him.[10]

For the 2009 Knesset election, the party’s top five candidates were Pe’er Wiesner, Dror Ezra, Ariella Ringel-Hoffman, Rafi Kishon, and Alex Weinreb.[11] Several environmental parties competed in that election, raising the possibility that divided support would affect whether a green list could cross the electoral threshold.[11] The Greens received 10,756 votes and remained outside the Knesset.[12] The separate Green Movement–Meimad list received 26,057 votes, while Green Leaf received 10,627.[12]

In December 2012, The Greens were preparing to contest the next Knesset election separately from Green Leaf and the Green Movement; the latter had joined Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua.[5] By January 2013, Amir Meltzer was the party’s leader and stated that The Greens had existed for 16 years.[6] An official candidate list titled “The Green and Young for a Green Future in Israel” placed Meltzer first, followed by Dror Ezra and Raz Kinstlich; the English names and list title were identified as unofficial translations or transliterations.[13] The final 2013 results recorded “The Green and Young” with 8,117 valid votes, or 0.21%, and no Knesset mandates.[14]

The party adopted the principles of the 1992 Earth Summit and linked environmental policy to regional cooperation.[1] Its outlook supported environmental solutions to regional conflicts on the premise that peace required shared management of the environment.[1] In social and economic affairs, it placed civil rights and the environment at the center of its agenda and pledged to halt environmental destruction and preserve the country.[1]

Its February 2009 election priorities included combating air and water pollution, cellular antennas, and the destruction of Israel’s beaches.[4] It also proposed expanding recycling, making better use of natural resources, and encouraging urban development that offered greater environmental protection.[4]

The party used polluted public space to illustrate its electoral message when it launched a campaign on a Jaffa beach that had become a municipal garbage dump.[2] Party officials promised that, if elected to the Knesset, they would clean the beach and return it to the public.[2] Wiesner, who headed the party’s Knesset slate, argued that environmental dangers near the Pi Glilot fuel depot and the chemical factories in Haifa Bay were “far greater than the dangers posed by Saddam Hussein.”[2]

In 2006, Wiesner cited municipal work as evidence of the party’s effectiveness despite limited resources.[1] He claimed achievements that included shifting some buses to less-polluting fuel, stopping construction on beaches, and pursuing authorities over pollution of the Yarkon River.[1] These were achievements claimed by the party chairman rather than independently established assessments of the party’s contribution.[1]

The Greens combined representation in municipal councils with repeated unsuccessful attempts to enter the Knesset.[3] Their local presence included increased representation between 1998 and 2003 in both Tel Aviv and Haifa, while their approximately 1.5% national vote share in 2006 remained insufficient for parliamentary representation.[3]

Public recognition did not necessarily translate into a clear understanding of the party’s identity.[6] A survey reported in 2013 found that 81% of respondents did not know the difference between The Greens and Green Leaf.[6] Nearly 14% attributed Green Leaf’s pro-marijuana message to The Greens, and 64% did not know that The Greens supported environment-friendly policies.[6]

An academic analysis of Israeli environmental politics placed Wiesner’s party alongside other attempts to establish green political organizations, including Nehama Ronen’s Environment’s Voice and the Green Movement associated with Eran Ben-Yemini and Alon Tal.[15] Its assessment was that the green political “brand” remained “indistinct and of little influence.”[15] The broader analysis identified environmental and equality agendas as marginal and largely unlinked in electoral politics, unlike the European green-party model, and connected this partly to geopolitical questions absorbing the energies of potential supporters of both environmental and redistributive politics.[15]

In 2008, tensions between the party and environmental activists outside electoral politics became a significant public dispute.[10] Some activists accused The Greens of being disconnected from grassroots environmental work, seeking publicity, and taking credit for campaigns led by other organizations; these were allegations rather than independently established findings, and Wiesner declined an interview for the report carrying them.[10]

Talks over a joint electoral list with activists including Alon Tal and Eran Ben-Yemini failed amid ideological and organizational disagreements.[10] The breakdown was attributed partly to Wiesner’s reported unwillingness to democratize the party, while a former list member claimed that its rules gave him unusually broad authority.[10] These allegations arose within a dispute between rival green political initiatives.[10]