Eighth Knesset
(1973 - 1977)
During the term of the eighth
Knesset the consequences of the Yom
Kippur War started to manifest themselves. The Agranat Commission,
which preceded the outbreak of the war and was appointed to examine
the failure, published its report on Apri 1l, 1974, and Prime Minister Golda Meir resigned as a
result.
The new government formed by Yitzhak
Rabin, did not include central figures, including Moshe
Dayan, who had been found to share in the responsibility for the
failure. The shock caused by the war did not manifest itself in the
results of the elections held at the end of 1973 but a substantial protest
movement started to develop.
The ideological polarization on the issue of the future
of the territories occupied during the Six
Day War also started to develop in this period, especially after
the the disengagement agreements were signed with Egypt and Syria in 1974, and the Interim agreement signed with Egypt in 1975, which were based on
the principle of territories for peace. Gush Emunim was established
in Febraury 1974 and the ideological settlement in the territories was accelerated.
During this period Israel's isolation in the international
arena began, as reflected in the UN
General Assembly resolution of 1975, which compared Zionism and racism. As a result of this development Israel's dependence on the
U.S. grew. Following the immigration wave in the early 1970s, the gates
of the Soviet Union closed, and a public struggle began for the right
of the Jews to immigrate to Israel and the release of Prisoners
of Zion.
In the course of the term of the eighth Knesset there
was a large number of terrorist attacks, including the attacks at Ma'alot (26 persons were killed - of whom 21 were youths), Nahariya,
Kibbutz Shamir, Kiryat
Shemona, the Savoy hotel in Tel
Aviv, Kikar Zion in Jerusalem, Beit She'an and Ramat Magshimim.
In July 1976 there was also the hijacking of the Air
France plane to Uganda, and the IDF's
daring operation to release the hostages from Entebbe.
In the course of the term of the Knesset the issue of talks between
Israelis and representatives of the PLO came up for debate several times.
In 1975 A Commission of Inquiry on the Status of Woman
was appointed, headed by MK Ora
Namir. which marked the beginning of a change in the approach to
the issue. In this year a civil war broke out in Lebanon,
and the "Good Fence" was opened on the Israeli-Lebanese border.
In March, there were the events of Land
Day, against the background of land confiscations in the Arab sector,
in the course of which six Israeli
Arabs were killed by the security forces.
As a result, there was a wave of unrest amongst the
Israeli Arabs. In these years there were several affairs, involving
senior politicians in the Alignment, against the background of suspicions
of financial irregularities. The candidate for the Governor of the Bank
of Israel, Asher Yadlin, was brought to trial at the end of 1976, and
Minister of Construction and Housing Avraham Ofer, committed suicide
against a similar background.
Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin resigned his post against the background of a bank account
held by his wife in the U.S. The historical alliance between the Labor
Party and the National Religious
Party came to an end towards the end of the term of the eighth Knesset,
against an ideological background, but the excuse was the allegation
that a ceremony held at an airforce base, upon the arrival of F-15 planes from the U.S., caused a breach of the Sabbath.
These were also the years in which there were frequent
strikes at El-Al airplanes and the port of Ashdod.
In the course of the eighth Knesset there were also early attempts by
the Government to enact two central Basic Laws of Legislation and Human
Rights, but both efforts were cut short due to the opposition of the
religious parties.
Sources: The Knesset |