30.3.14

What a year!

Just over a year ago Meretz doubled the number of seats in elections to the Israeli Knesset, from three to six.

Since then the party has sadly lost some great personalities: Shulamit Aloni, who we cited in our last posting, and more recently the veteran former health minister, chair of Mapam and pioneering peacemaker, Victor Shem-Tov.

However, the intervening year or so has also seen Meretz score a number of landmark successes. As Bianca Ambrosio, operations manager of the World Union of Meretz, tells us, the party has legislated on many issues, fought a number of vital campaigns, accomplished numerous breakthroughs for ordinary citizens and increased in size. Meretz also bolstered Israel's oft-threatened democracy with petitions, and while it occasionally got frustrated it invariably persisted and fought back!