Founded 13 November 2012 Political position Far-right | Headquarters Jerusalem Knesset 0 / 120 | |
Leader Aryeh Eldad
Michael Ben-Ari Ideology Greater Israel
Neo-Kahanism
Neo-Zionism | ||
Otzma Yehudit (Hebrew: עוצמה יהודית, lit. Jewish Strength) is a far-right political party in Israel. Its predecessor party, Otzma LeYisrael (Hebrew: עָצְמָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, lit. Strength for Israel) or Strong Israel, was established 13 November 2012 by MKs Aryeh Eldad and Michael Ben-Ari, who split from the National Union to form a new party ahead of the 2013 elections. Otzma LeYisrael is seen by some as the ideological descendant of the outlawed Kach party.
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In the 2013 election, Otzma LeYisrael failed to pass the minimum 2% voting threshold by 9000 votes and did not receive any seats in the 19th Knesset.
History
Eldad was first elected to the Knesset on the National Union list in 2003. In November 2007, Eldad formed a new secular far-right party named Hatikva. Ultimately Hatikva ran as a faction of the National Union in the 2009 elections, and Eldad retained his seat.
Ben-Ari ran for Knesset unsuccessfully in the 2003 elections with the Herut – The National Movement party, and in the 2006 elections with the Jewish National Front party, both times failing to pass the threshold. Leading up to the 2009 elections, the Jewish National Front, headed by a long-time Kach party activist Baruch Marzel, joined Eretz Yisrael Shelanu, a new party founded by Chabad Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpo. The joint list ran as part of the National Union, with Michael Ben-Ari, its representative, taking the fourth spot on the alliance's list. The National Union won four seats, allowing Ben-Ari to enter the Knesset.
Eldad, a secular hardliner, and Ben-Ari, an ex-Kahanist, decided to form the new faction ahead of the 2013 elections, after they were unable to come to an agreement with the National Union, which was expected to be forming a joint list with the Jewish Home. Eldad was chosen to lead the party's list, followed by Ben-Ari and Marzel.
In 2015 the party chose to contest the 2015 Knesset election as part of a joint list with Yachad; Baruch Marzel is the only candidate from the party to run on the list. Yachad won 125,106 votes (2.97%) in the election, falling short of the 3.25% threshold needed for winning seats in the Knesset.
Controversies
In December 2012, Otzma LeYisrael ran an ad campaign on billboards and bus advertisements that included words in Arabic such as equality and taxes. One of the signs was banned by the Israeli Central Elections Committee on the ground that the ad was racist. The ad shows the Arabic word "loyalty" with Hebrew caption "Because without duties there are no rights." This ban was later reversed by the Supreme Court of Israel.
Aryeh King, a Ma'ale ha-Zeitim resident, ran as number 4 on the party list of candidates. Later that year he was elected into the Jerusalem municipal council, where he became Chairperson of the Environment Committee, Deputy Chairperson of the Emergency and Security Committee, and a council member on the Regional Planning and Building Committee. While holding these positions, in January 2014, he distributed thousands of flyers to the Arab residents of Jerusalem asking them to leave the Land of Israel in exchange for a negotiated amount, due to the Jewish rights to the land as written down in the Torah and acknowledged by the Koran.