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Shinui Party (Israel)

Party of Change, Mifleget Shinui

image by Željko Heimer | 2:3

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Description

Shinui (meaning Change) is a small liberal party in the opposition. Its flag shows the party name in blue on a white field.
Dov Gutterman, 21 June 2002

A friend of mine, a Shinui supporter, once told me that when the Mapam, Ratz, and Shinui parties merged in 1992, they made the new name, Meretz, from an acronym of the first two, representing Shinui by using the color green, Shinui's color. Shinui is no longer part of Meretz, but did it leave its color behind when it left? I suppose that Shinui would be considered liberal (in the American, not European, sense) only in Israel. Perhaps green has come to mean something Shinui doesn't want to associate with (Greens, leftism, etc.), and they saw blue (conservative, Zionist) as better.
Nathan Lamm, 21 June 2002

Shinui split in 1997. Most of the leaders stayed in Meretz and the rest established the 'new' Shinui. Dates in Shinui history:

1974 – Established
1977 – Joined the 'Democratic Movement' in the 'DASH' (Democratic Movement for Change)which got 15 seats bringing the Labour Party rule to end by joining the Likud in the Coalition.
1978 – Dash split, and 8 Shinui seats joined the opposition.
1980 – Dash name changed to: 'Shinui – Party on the Centre'
1981 – Down to 2 seats (3 in 1984, 2 in 1988)
1992 – Joining Mapam and Ratz to create Meretz
1997 – Shinui split
1999 – Using a strong anti-religious line the 'new' Shinui got 6 seats.
2000 – New platform as 'A Democratic, Liberal, Zionist, Non-religious, Peace seeking party'

Source: Shinui website

Dov Gutterman, 21 June 2002

Full name in 2003 elections: Shinui – Mifleget HaHilonim VeMa'amad HaBenaim (Change – The Secular and Middle Class Party)
Letters: Yud-Shin (YESH = there is, got it etc.)
Flag/logo: light blue logo (party name) on white
Remarks: Leading hard anti-religious-parties line. Going to be the third largest party.
Dov Gutterman, 14 January 2003

Shinui Party was the (expected) surprise of the 2003 elections, more than doubling its force – from 6 seats to 15 to become the third largest party. The celebration in the party headquarters revealed the party flag as a light blue logo – the party name on white.
Dov Gutterman, 28 January 2003

Shinui – HaMiflaga HaEzrahit shel Yisrael (Change – Israel Civil Party) is the list of Shinui – Mifleget HaMerkaz (The Center [wing] Party) and is led by Ron Leventhal and use the letters yod-shin (making it yesh – got it).
Shinui birth was after Yom Kippur war of 1973 as a protest movement founded by people from the Academies and the social elite. Before the 1977 election they joined "The Democratic Movement" into the "Democratic Movement for Change" (known shortly as Dash) and the success of getting 15 seats (most of them taken from HaAvoda – Labor Party) brought to the first ever government change in Israel and the rising of HaLikud. It took only a year and Shinui left the coalition and split Dash.
For few campaigns it ran independently but in 1992 it joined Meretz. Few years later it was split again. Some members including its founder Amnon Rubinshtein stayed in Meretz while others led by Avraham Poraz left and return to the previous name.
Poraz asked the popular newspaperman Yosef Lapid (a.k.a. Tomi) to lead the party and with his leadership and by adopting a strong anti-religious agenda it got 6 seats in 2000 and surprising 15 seats in 2003 making it the third largest party.
Internal rivalry brought Poraz to lose the second spot in the internal elections, a move that brought the leader, Lapid, to retire from political life and brought Poraz and his followers (including almost all Shinui's Knesset members) to found Hetz.
The party retain the "logo" (its name) but change the colors from light blue-white to green-white as well its flag in both variations.
The change of leadership and the internal rivalry brought down the former third largest party with 15 seats into getting only 4675 votes. Web site at www.shinui.org.il.
Dov Gutterman, 25 March/7 June 2006

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