Manhigut Yehudit The roots of Zehut lie in the
Manhigut Yehudit (
Jewish Leadership) movement within the
Likud party, established in 1995 by
Moshe Feiglin in order to attain the country's leadership through it, eventually receiving 23% of the votes in the
2012 Likud leadership election. In the
2013 elections, Feiglin was elected to the 19th
Knesset, and served as its Deputy Speaker. After Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu took active steps to block Feiglin's advancement in the party, he reached the conclusion that it would be impossible to affect any political changes while acting within the Likud. In 2015, he left it to form the Zehut party, which was officially registered later that year.
Rallies Zehut's first conference, held in 2017 at Hangar 11 in Tel Aviv Port, had over 2,000 attendees. Idan Mor, a prominent stand-up comedian and cannabis legalization activist known by his pseudonym "Gadi Wilcherski", joined the party in December 2018, and has appeared in most of its rallies since. Many pollsters kept excluding Zehut as a pre-written selectable option as late as 11 March 2019. In July 2018, Zehut announced it would be holding Israel's first
open primaries. They were held on 29 January 2019 at voting booths as well as online. About 12,000 people voted in these primaries, which determined the order of the candidates who won in the party's internal primaries in September 2017. One out of every 10 candidates is represented by Zehut International, the party's
Jewish diaspora branch. In late March 2019, a major poll conducted by the National Union of Students found that Zehut was the 2nd-most popular party (after
Blue and White) among Israeli college and university students.
April 2019 campaign During the campaign for the
April 2019 election, Feiglin stated that he did not have a preference between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main election rival
Benny Gantz. Zehut made
cannabis legalization a condition for joining any government after the April elections, and would pursue the
finance and
education ministries.
September 2019 campaign After narrowly missing the Knesset threshold in the April 2019 election, Feiglin announced on 30 May that Zehut will run in the
September snap election. He expressed openness to run as part of an alliance on the right, and urged "all political figures who see themselves as part of the freedom camp" to join it. Feiglin and
New Right leader
Naftali Bennett discussed a potential electoral alliance (whose leader Feiglin preferred be elected in open primaries) in a meeting that was described as "long and positive". Feiglin also said that while Zehut's platform and principles had not changed, it would make a number of strategic changes, including clearly emphasizing that it is a right-wing party, and no longer make cannabis legalization a condition for joining any government coalition. Zehut also engaged in direct talks with Otzma Yehudit for a joint list, with backing from Netanyahu after Likud internal polling showed that the two parties together would pass the electoral threshold. Ultimately, however, Feiglin announced that Zehut would be running alone, accusing Shaked of ignoring overtures by his party. Netanyahu later sent messengers to urge Zehut to drop out of the election, offering to help pay the party’s debts and merge the party into the Likud. However, Feiglin initially declined the offer, claiming that his voter base would support
Benny Gantz,
Avigdor Lieberman or stay home if that took place. Netanyahu subsequently met with Feiglin to offer him a senior position in the Ministry of Finance, the adoption of some of Zehut's economic policies, and ease access to medical cannabis providing he drop his election bid. Feiglin then declared that if he received an agreeable proposal, he would put it to a vote by Zehut supporters. On 29 August 2019, Feiglin announced an agreement with Netanyahu had been reached and that Zehut would withdraw from the election, pending approval by the Zehut membership. According to the terms of the agreement, the parties would not merge, but Feiglin would serve as a minister in the next government, and the next government would implement some of Zehut's economic and cannabis reforms. On 1 September, the Zehut membership approved the deal and the party withdrew from the election.
2020, 2021 abstentions and dissolution The party did not contest the
2020 or
2021 elections. In July 2021, Feiglin announced that he was rejoining Likud.
Reformation In January 2024, Feiglin left
Likud and reestablished the party. == Platform ==