Herut
Herut חֵרוּת | |
|---|---|
| Leader | Menachem Begin (1948–1983) Yitzhak Shamir (1983–1988) |
| Founded | 15 June 1948 |
| Dissolved | 1988 |
| Merged into | Likud |
| Headquarters | Tel Aviv, Israel |
| Newspaper | Herut |
| Ideology | National conservatism Revisionist Zionism |
| Political position | Right-wing |
| National affiliation | Gahal (1965–1973) Likud (1973–1988) |
| Most MKs | 28 (1981, 1984) |
| Election symbol | |
 | |
The Herut Party (Herut means freedom in Hebrew) was a right-wing Zionist political party in Israel. Herut was founded by Menachem Begin following Israel's independence in 1948. Herut believed that all of British Mandatory Palestine belonged to the Jews. Herut was opposed to Israel accepting money from West Germany as an apology for the Holocaust. Herut believed security was very important. Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion thought Herut was radical and he compared Menachem Begin and the other members of the Herut party to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Herut's leader Menachem Begin was not a Socialist so he formed an alliance in 1965 with the Liberal Party to create the Liberal-Freedom Bloc known in Hebrew as Gush Herut Liberalim or Gahal. In September 1973, Gahal merged with the Free Centre, the National List and the non-parliamentary Movement for Greater Israel to create the Likud, which was at first an alliance. In 1988 it became a party and Herut dissolved.
