Poale Zion - Poale Zion's Legacy

Poale Zion's Legacy

After World War I, David Ben-Gurion integrated most of Poale Zion Right in Palestine into his Ahdut HaAvoda party, which became Mapai by the 1930s. The Poale Zion Left merged with the kibbutz-based Hashomer Hatzair and the urban-based Socialist League to form Mapam in 1948, which later merged with two smaller parties, Ratz and Shinui to form Meretz-Yachad. In 1946, a split in Mapai led to the creation of another small party, Ahdut HaAvoda - Zion Workers, which united with Mapam in 1948. In 1954, a small group of Mapam dissidents left the party, again assuming the Ahdut HaAvoda - Zion Workers name. That party eventually became part of the Alignment in a 1965 merger with Mapai (and later included Rafi and Mapam). In 1992, the Alignment became the Israeli Labour Party.

In North America, Poale Zion founded the HeHalutz movement, the Farband and Habonim Dror, and later the Labor Zionist Organization of America, which merged with other groups into the Labor Zionist Alliance, which rebranded itself in 2007 as Ameinu. In Britain, Poale Zion rebranded itself in 2004 as the Jewish Labour Movement.

Internationally, the Poale Zion right is represented within the World Zionist Organization by World Labour Zionist Movement; the group "to the left" of the WLZM within the WZO is the World Union of Meretz.