The Democrats (Israel)

The Democrats הדמוקרטים‎
Leader	Yair Golan
Founders	Yair Golan Tomer Reznik
Founded	30 June 2024 (2024-06-30) (agreement announced)
Merger of	Israeli Labor Party Meretz
Headquarters	Tel Aviv, Israel
Ideology	Liberal democracy Zionism Secularism Progressivism
Political position	Centre-left to left-wing
Colours	Blue   Red
Knesset	0 / 120
Website
democrats.org.il
Politics of Israel Political parties Elections

The Democrats (Hebrew: הדמוקרטים) is a left-of-centre political party in Israel, formed as a merger between the Israeli Labor Party and Meretz, which was approved on 2 July by both parties. Former Meretz MK Yair Golan, the proposed leader of the party, has said that the party aims to be a "broad home for the liberal democratic public in Israel".

History

Background

In the 2022 Israeli legislative election, the left-wing Meretz party won 3.2% of the vote failing, for the first time, to pass the electoral threshold (3.25%) required to qualify for seats in the Knesset, while the Labor Party just managed to pass, with 3.7% of the vote, winning only four seats, its worst ever performance in terms of popular vote. Labor leader Merav Michaeli was criticised for having refused to enter into an electoral pact with Meretz as the party's loss contributed to the anti-Netanyahu bloc's failure to win enough seats to stop Benjamin Netanyahu from forming a government.

Negotiations began between Labor and Meretz following the 2022 election, with Meretz party secretary general Tomer Reznik and former Meretz MK Michal Rozin heading negotiations on behalf of their party and Labor MKs Gilad Kariv and Naama Lazimi in charge of the negotiations for Labor, with Golan joining the negotiations later (following his actions on 7 October when he rescued several people).

Polling conducted throughout 2023 and in 2024, in the months prior to Labor's leadership election, suggested that in the next Israeli legislative election, Labor may fail to pass the threshold and be shut out of the Knesset, while Meretz was projected to narrowly pass the threshold and win four seats, while polls taken in June prior to the merger agreement projected that if the parties were to run together, they would win more than ten seats.

Golan launched his leadership campaign for Labor in early March 2024 on a platform of uniting Labor, Meretz and other organisations and announced the formation of The Democrats on 18 March 2024, laying out his vision for an alternative to the Netanyahu government and calling for an early Knesset election. Golan was elected Labor leader in a "landslide victory" on 28 May 2024.

Launch of the merger

On 30 June, the two parties jointly announced that they had agreed to a merger, which will need to be confirmed by the respective parties' conferences before going into effect.

According to a press release, the merger is “not a ‘technical bloc,’ but rather a historical process that produces, finally, one large and united party, a liberal-democratic Zionist party that will be a political home for a large part of the Israeli population.” Under the merger agreement there will be one Meretz representative in every four spots on the new party's electoral list as well as on the party bodies, and there will also be representation for Meretz's municipal factions. Golan will receive two seats in the top ten slots. The representation agreement will only be in effect for the next election, after which the party's electoral slate and members of representative bodies will be chosen by party primaries. The agreement designated Labor Party leader Yair Golan as leader and chairman of the new party.

Leaders

Leader			Took office	Left office
		Yair Golan	TBD	TBD