Knesset elections
Knesset electionsMiriam Alster/Flash 90

Israel’s newest political party was launched this week with the formation of the Tor HaZahav movement.

Founded by 60 journalists, educators, entrepreneurs, and social activists, the party eschews all traditional partisan labels. We’re “not right, not left – and not center” one of the group’s founders told Walla News.  

But if the movement rejects ideological labels, it’s very emphatic about ethnic ones.  Declaring itself a “Mizrachi social movement” working to advance “the traditional Mizrachi agenda”, Tor HaZahav looks to instill a sense of Mizrachi unity and promote “Mizrachi” interests. Mizrachi Jews are those who come from the Middle East and North Africa.

“Mizrachi Jews are invisible” explained Ophir Tubol, a community organizer. “They never join together to promote their joint interests”.

On the eve of the 2015 Knesset election, Tubol endorsed Shas, calling on voters to “turn Aryeh Deri into Israel’s Obama”.  

What is the party’s platform regarding hot button issues like security or the future of Judea and Samaria?  

It’s just a distraction.  “On the Palestinian issue today there’s no difference between right and left,” claimed Carmen Elmakayis-Amos, a social activist also involved in creating Tor HaZahav. “The issue only blinds us”.  

More than anything else, the party emphasizes a complete rejection of political establishments – establishments created by Ashkenazim.

“For 70 years we stood on the sidelines and took part in political movements, ideologies, dogmas, and religious streams that we didn’t make, that weren’t made for us, and that don’t serve us” the party’s declaration states.

“The time has come for the second Israel to move to the front of the stage and turn the periphery into the center.  Now it’s our turn.”