In early 1958, population registry clerks received a directive from the minister of the interior according to which people should be registered according to their own declaration. If a person declared he or she was Jewish, they should be registered as such, and if a couple declared that their children were Jewish, they should be registered as such. The directive and its publication caused an outcry in the religious community because it appeared to be  was perceived as an instruction to the clerks to register people as Jews when they are not recognized as such by Jewish law.

 

In June of that year, the government of Israel added the caveat "and is not a member of another religion" to the directives, but decided that parental declaration that their child was Jewish would suffice for registration purposes. This was unacceptable to the religious parties and resulted in the Mafdal's resignation from the government. David Ben Gurion established a ministerial commission to examine the issue. In October 1958 Ben Gurion sent a letter to several Jewish personalities around the world, asking their opinion regarding the possibility of defining Jewish national identity separately from Jewish religious identity. Most sided with Orthodox Judaism's position, but the question of "who is a Jew?" was not resolved. It would play a part in Israeli public and political life for many years to come. 

Moshe Dayan (1915-1981), soldier and statesman, grew up in Nahalal. As a youth, he joined the Hagana. He was a guard and a member of Wingate's Special Night Squads. He participated in British military actions against the Vichy regime in Syria, in the course of which he lost an eye. He commanded a unit during the War of Independence and was included in the political dealings at its end. He was promoted through the ranks of the IDF and in 1953 became chief of staff. He was commander in chief of the IDF during the Sinai Campaign. Upon leaving the IDF in 1958, he joined Mapai and was elected to the fourth Knesset in 1959. He served as minister of agriculture until 1964. He joined Ben Gurion in establishing Rafi, as a representative of which he was elected to the Knesset in 1965. In the period preceding the Six-Day War he was appointed minister of Defense and designed defense policy before and after the war. He was minister of defense during the Yom Kippur War, and his public standing suffered because he was considered one of those responsible for the "fiasco". In 1977 he was elected to the Knesset on the Labor party list but joined Begin's government as foreign minister. He played a central role in the improving ties with Egypt and in the achievement of the peace treaty. In 1980 he resigned from the government because of delays in negotiations with the Palestinians. He established a party, was elected to the Knesset in 1981, but died shortly thereafter. 

In the elections for the fourth Knesset, Mapai sponsored three satellite Arab parties in order to fortify its overall position by approaching the Arab population directly. The three parties, Kidma U'Fituach, Shituf V'Achva and Agriculture and Development, ran as independent lists and were managed by Arab activists, but were actually puppets of Mapai. Together, the three parties obtained about 34,000 votes, which translated into five seats in the Knesset. These seats were added to Mapai's unprecedented sweep of 47 mandates, giving it an absolute majority.

 

Kidma U'Fituach, led by Ahmed A-Dahar and Elias Nahale won two seats. Shituf V'Achva also won two seats, putting Laviv-Hussein Abu-Rochan and Yussef Diab in the Knesset. Agriculture and Development won a single seat, which was taken by Mahmud A-Nashaf. These parties were part of the coalition but were not given ministerial or cabinet positions.  Kidma U'Fituach faded out in the 1970s while Shituf V'Achva disappeared at the end of the 1960s. Agriculture and Development did not manage to run in the 1961 elections. The story of these parties is the first chapter in the history of the fragmentation of the Arab electorate and an important chapter in the history of relations between the establishment and Arab Israeli citizens.