This is an election poster for the 1949 Israeli elections, the first elections of the State of Israel. The poster was published by the Herut party, whose ballot symbol was the Hebrew letter chet. The poster, with the headline “A Strong Arm,” features a cartoon of a large man flogging a man lying on the ground. Although the large man is unnamed, his bald head with two tufts of hair sticking up on the sides identifies him as David Ben-Gurion. The man on the ground bears a label which reads “The Yishuv.” Ben-Gurion’s whip is labelled “Coalition,” and the four lashes read “protectionism,” “monopolism,” “bureaucracy,” and “rationing.” Helping the large man are three smaller men with whips of their own. The men are labelled “Sephardim,” “religious front,” and “progressives.” The caption at the bottom reads “Bring defeat to the Mapai regime and its battalions” and asks the viewers to vote for Herut.
The message of the poster is that Ben-Gurion, the Mapai party, and the parties in the coalition are harming the Yishuv with their socialist beliefs and their support for government-owned business and austerity measures.
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Mapai – Mapai (an acronym for Mifleget Poalei Eretz Yisrael—The Workers Party of the Land of Israel) was the dominant political party in Israel until it ceased to exist as an individual party and merged with others to form the Labour party in 1968. Established in 1930, Mapai’s base of support was the Histadrut (Labour Union), the kibbutzim, and the moshavim. Mapai was a socialist-Zionist party and focused on meeting the needs of the working class including health care, employment, youth groups, and sport. David Ben-Gurion was Mapai’s most prominent figure, serving twice as prime minister (1948–1953 and 1955–1963). In later years, additional Mapai leaders held the position of prime minister: Moshe Sharett, Levi Eshkol, and Golda Meir. The party was seriously damaged by the Lavon Affair, a failed undercover operation that brought down the government in 1961. In 1968 Mapai joined with the parties Ahdut HaAvoda and Rafi to form the Labour party and led the Israeli government until Menachem Begin’s Likud party came to power in 1977. Mapai’s election symbol was the Hebrew letter aleph.
Herut – The Herut (freedom) party, which was founded and led by Menahem Begin, had its roots in the Irgun, a pre-state underground military group, and in Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s revisionist Zionism. Herut took a hard line on territorial issues, believing in the biblical borders of the Land of Israel, which include land on both sides of the Jordan River. Herut was the opposition party during the early decades of the state that were dominated by the socialist Mapai party, which refused to include Herut in its coalition governments. Herut was opposed to socialism and encouraged private enterprise. In the 1950s, Herut opposed the reparation agreement between Israel and Germany in the wake of the Holocaust. In 1965 Herut joined the Liberal party to form Gahal, and in 1973 Gahal and several other parties joined together to form the Likud. Menachem Begin became prime minister in 1977, after the Likud party’s surprising victory.
1949 Israeli General Elections – The 1949 elections took place on January 25, 1949, although they had originally been planned for the previous October. (They were postponed due to the ongoing fighting during the War of Independence.) The original purpose of the 1949 elections had been to elect the Constituent Assembly, whose mission was to write the constitution of the new State of Israel. However, after the elections, the Constituent Assembly was renamed Israel’s First Knesset. The Knesset was unable to reach consensus regarding a constitution, and, to this day, Israel does not have a constitution. Turnout for the elections was a high 87% of eligible voters, and the atmosphere surrounding the elections was festive. The main parties vying for control of the government were the two workers’ parties, Mapam and Mapai. Although agreeing on many issues, Mapam was pro-Soviet, while Mapai was pro-Western. David Ben-Gurion was the leader of Mapai, and his party won 46 of the 120 seats of the Knesset. Instead of entering a coalition with Mapam, who had won 19 seats, Ben-Gurion chose to create a coalition of centrist and religious parties, leaving Mapam and Menachem Begin’s Herut party in opposition.
David Ben-Gurion – David Ben-Gurion is considered the father of the State of Israel and was its first prime minister. He was born in Poland in 1886 ,where he joined the socialist-Zionist group Poalei Zion (Workers of Zion). He immigrated to Israel in 1906 and became involved in creating the first agricultural worker’s commune – the precursor to the kibbutz –and Hashomer (the Watchman), a Jewish self-defence group. Ben-Gurion served as the first secretary general of the Histradrut, the trade union movement. He became the leader of the Mapai (Workers Party of the Land of Israel) party in 1930 and led the fight against the British White Paper which limited Jewish immigration and settlement in Israel. After the United Nations vote on the Partition Plan on November 29, 1947, Ben-Gurion began the work of planning the infrastructure of the new state. In 1948, after he declared the creation of the State of Israel, Ben-Gurion became the first prime minister and defence minister. During his time as prime minister, the infrastructure of Israel was developed, large numbers of immigrants – Holocaust survivors and Jews fleeing Arab countries – were absorbed, and Israel’s economic and military status was secured. In 1953 Ben-Gurion left government and retired, with his wife, Paula, to Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev. He returned to political life in 1955 as defence minister and then as prime minister. Ben-Gurion resigned as prime minister in June 1963, although he remained involved in politics until he retired once again in June 1970 and returned to Sde Boker, where he passed away in 1973.
Elections in Israel – Israel is a democratic country, and general elections for the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, take place, according to the law, once every four years. The nationwide elections are based on a multi-party, proportional representation system. The legal voting age in Israel is 18, and all Israeli citizens from sectors may vote and be elected. Using voting slips with the initials of the parties, citizens vote for their preferred party and not for individual candidates. The 120 seats in the Knesset are then assigned proportionally to the parties according to the number of votes received. After the elections, the president of Israel chooses the leader of the largest party or of the party that is most likely to form a viable coalition government. This leader then forms a government, the Knesset gives it a vote of confidence, and the leader then becomes prime minister.
