Ya'ad – Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement, known by the Hebrew acronym Ratz, was formed by Shulamit Aloni in December 1973 shortly before the election to the Eighth Knesset.[5] In a 24-hour campaign, Aloni and her associates gathered 2,000 signatures in support of the new electoral list.[5]

Ratz called for stronger civil rights, particularly concerning the boundary between state and religion, and supported a peace settlement with Palestinians and Arab states based on territorial compromise.[6] Aloni also brought a proposed Basic Law for Human Rights to its first reading in the Knesset.[7] Ratz won three seats in the 1973 election and entered Yitzhak Rabin's coalition; Aloni resigned from the cabinet after the National Religious Party joined the government.[5]

During the Eighth Knesset, the Ratz faction consisted of Aloni, Boaz Moav, and Marcia Freedman. In 1975, the Knesset Committee approved the addition of Aryeh Eliav and the adoption of the combined name “Ya'ad – Civil Rights Movement.”[1] Eliav had concluded after the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War that Jewish settlement should not be permitted in the territories captured in 1967 and that the territories should be evacuated. He left the Alignment in 1975 after the country's leaders opposed his position and joined Ya'ad.[8]

On June 3, 1975, the Knesset Committee formally approved the Hebrew name יעד – תנועה לזכויות האזרח at the request of Aloni, Freedman, and Moav. Its notice identified Eliav as the fourth member of the faction.[1] National Library of Israel catalog descriptions also record a first Ya'ad meeting in Shlomi and another gathering in J'ad during 1975.[9]

The official records show that Ya'ad resulted from a mid-term reorganization of serving Knesset members rather than a separate general-election campaign. The same records later document its division into two factions.[1][2]

Although Ya'ad existed only briefly, Knesset proceedings show its members participating under the combined faction label. On January 19, 1976, Aloni proposed replacing a provision that imposed local-authority guarding duties only on men with a gender-neutral obligation; the Knesset rejected her amendment. In the same sitting, Moav supported allowing a local-authority head to win in the first round with 40% of the vote. Consideration of that proposal was postponed after a procedural question arose.[10]

On January 27, 1976, the Knesset Committee recognized Aryeh Eliav and Marcia Freedman, who had separated from Ya'ad, as a faction for parliamentary work. Aloni and Moav were simultaneously authorized to resume using the name Civil Rights Movement (Ratz). On February 3, the committee approved “Independent Socialist Faction” as the name of the Eliav–Freedman group.[2]

Ratz continued independently after the split. In the 1984 election it received 49,698 votes, or 2.4% of valid ballots, and won three seats.[11] Ratz later became part of Meretz in 1992.[5]

The 1975 faction is distinct from Yahad—Hebrew for “Together”—the centrist party formed by Ezer Weizman in 1984. Weizman's party backed Labor's electoral campaign and won three Knesset seats.[4] It received 46,302 votes, representing 2.2% of valid ballots.[11]

After the election, Weizman's Yahad formally joined the Alignment and ceased to exist as a separate parliamentary group.[3] Weizman became a minister without portfolio in the National Unity government, and he and the party joined Labor in 1986.[4] Election tables list Ratz and Weizman's party separately, with different vote totals despite their identical three-seat results.[11][3]

Some English references render Weizman's party as “Ya'ad,” but the names derive from different Hebrew words: the 1975 faction used יעד, meaning “Goal,” while Weizman's Yahad was described as “Together.” Their leadership, origins, and parliamentary histories were separate.[3][4]

The principal source difficulty is inconsistent terminology rather than uncertainty about the Knesset faction's official name. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and American Jewish Committee materials refer to the Citizens' Rights Movement or Ratz without using the name Ya'ad.[12][13] By contrast, the June 3, 1975, Knesset record explicitly approves “Ya'ad – Civil Rights Movement” as the faction's name.[1]

Archival catalog descriptions call Ya'ad a new political party, while the Knesset records document it as a parliamentary faction created through a change of name and composition.[9][1] A separate ambiguity arises because English references use both “Yahad” and “Ya'ad” for Ezer Weizman's 1984 party, making the distinct Hebrew names and chronologies important when identifying the two organizations.[3][4]