Meretz, the party to the left of the Labor Party, is inarguably an Ashkenazi party – made up of Jews with roots in Europe. Since it was founded to run in the 1992 election, only two of its Knesset members have been of Mizrahi – Middle Eastern or North African – extraction: Ran Cohen and Mossi Raz. And its community of voters rarely changes very much. [...]
After so many years of arrogant disregard, the expectation that Mizrahim would choose Meretz seemed pretty absurd. Now the party apparently understands the need for greater change. For the first time Meretz will hold an open primary, which has sparked a lively leadership contest between young and old, Mizrahim and Ashkenazim, offering some hope for the party’s future. [...]
Buskila says that while party veterans have raised an eyebrow over his candidacy, younger people understand that there’s an issue they can’t ignore. “All told, the Mizrahi discourse deals with the issues that are Meretz’s bread and butter. Equal opportunity, distributive justice – that’s what the party does,” he says. “The Mizrahi discourse isn’t against Ashkenazim, it’s a debate with the establishment that continues to operate the same way.”
Still, Buskila knows that the issue of distributive justice is problematic in Meretz, which has a strong support base in the kibbutzim. Distributive justice means reallocating the state’s resources that were provided to population groups with power and status, as well as a realignment of municipal boundaries in outlying areas that isolate development towns from the wealthier regions studded with moshavim and kibbutzim.
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