Rafi (party)

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The Rafi party (רשימת פועלי ישראל Reshimat Po'aley Yisrael "List of the workers of Israel") was formed in 1965 by former Prime Minister of Israel David Ben Gurion, after he and a number of other Mapai members split with his successor, Levi Eshkol. The split was over the Lavon affair, as Ben Gurion did not agree to declare Lavon innocent without judicial investigation committee. Another issue of difference was the "Labour Alignment" formed in 1965, when Mapai joined with Achdut Ha'Avoda-Poalei Tsion. The establishment of the "Alignment" postponed the realization of the change of voting system, decided by mapai, and was very important to Ben Gurion. Among the leaders of the new party were Shimon Peres and Moshe Dayan who had been implicated (they claimed unfairly) in the Lavon affair and were upset by Mapai's failure to support them. The new party hoped to displace Mapai as Israel's leading party, however, the party only won ten seats in the 1965 elections to the Knesset on a platform calling for electoral reform. In 1967, Rafi joined the national unity government that had been formed due to the Six Day War. The next year, Rafi reconciled with Mapai to form a new party, the Alignment (which later became the Israeli Labour Party). Ben Gurion refused to go along, however, and sat as an independent Member of the Knesset until the 1969 election in which he led a new party, the State List.

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