Telem (2019 political party)


Telem is a centre-right political party in Israel. The party was formed by former Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and registered on 2 January 2019 in order to contest the April 2019 Knesset elections. It subsequently joined the Blue & White alliance. Yesh Atid and the party left the alliance on 29 March 2020 and formed an independent faction in the Knesset called Yesh Atid-Telem.

History

In the wake of conflicts with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Hebron shooting incident and Yisrael Beiteinu joining Netanyahu's coalition, Moshe Ya'alon left his defense minister post in May 2016 "amidst wide-spread speculation that he would be fired by Netanyahu". On 12 March 2017, Ya'alon officially relinquished his membership of Likud, announcing that he will form a new party to challenge Netanyahu in the upcoming 2019 election.
The party was named in remembrance of former Defense Minister Moshe Dayan and his party, Telem. Ya'alon said "he was a soldier for Israel for decades, and he would continue to serve the public in his new party".
In advance of the April 2019 Knesset elections, Telem merged with the Israel Resilience Party and Yesh Atid. Ya'alon was positioned third on the new united list, known as the Blue & White alliance. The party received five seats in the April 2019 Knesset elections, out of 35 seats that the entire alliance received. In the subsequent September 2019 Knesset elections, the party ran again as part of the Blue & White alliance and retained their five seats out of the 33 seats that the entire alliance received.

Party goals

The party's goals as laid out by its registration papers are:
The party puts a big emphasis on increasing settlement in Israel's disputed areas. During a visit to the West Bank settlement Leshem, The party's leader Moshe Ya'alon said: "It is our right to settle in the entire land of Israel". Zvi Hauser, one of the party's MKs, was the head of the Israeli Golan Coalition, an organisation which works for increasing Jewish settlement in the Golan Heights.

Leaders

Election results

Knesset members