Maki

(The Israeli Communist Party)

 

Maki

Founded in 1948

The roots of Maki (HaMiflaga HaKomunistit HaYisraelit – the Israeli Communist Party), as a mixed Jewish-Arab party, are to be found in the Communist Party that existed during the British Mandatory period. After the Soviet Union supported  the UN Partition Plan in 1947, Maki participated in the institutions of the provisional government (the People’s Council and the Interim State Council). A representative of Maki—Meir Vilner—was even one of the signatories of the Israeli Declaration of Independence. Following the Soviet  change of heart regarding Israel in the early 1950s, Maki reverted to the anti-Zionist positions that had characterized it in Mandatory times. From that time onwards, it positioned itself as an anti-establishment party that opposed Israel’s pro-Western alignment, rejected mass-immigration of Jews to Israel, and called for the establishment of a socialist regime and for self-determination for Israeli Arabs.

Maki won significant support from Israeli Arabs. The late 1950s saw the development a deep ideological rift between two camps within the party: one camp that was predominantly Jewish (headed by Moshe Sneh) and a second camp that was predominantly nationalist-Arab (headed by Tawfik Toubi and Meir Vilner). In 1965, this rift finally brought about a split. The camp headed by Vilner and Toubi established Rakah, leaving Maki as a weakened and diluted political force that had ceased to exist as a political entity by the early 1980s. When Maki ceased to exist, Rakah adopted its name. In its present incarnation, Maki is the main component of the Hadash list. 

table
Election Year Votes Count Number Of Seats Share Of Votes List Of Candidates Platform
1969 15,712 1 1.1 Candidates Candidates
1965 13,617 1 1.1 Candidates Candidates
1961 42,111 5 4.2 Candidates Candidates
1959 27,374 3 2.8 Candidates Candidates
1955 38,492 6 4.5 Candidates Candidates
1951 27,334 5 4.0 Candidates Candidates
1949 15,148 4 3.5 Candidates Candidates

Note that the lists of candidates in this table are in Hebrew.

Shmuel Miknis, Moshe Sneh, Meir Vilner, Tawfik Toubi