Glossary - Israel: An Introduction - page 332

Democratic Movement for Change — Political party that called for reform and won fi fteen seats in the
1977 election, costing the Labor Party the victory. It disappeared from the political scene in sub-
sequent elections.
Diaspora — Literally, “dispersion”; refers to Jewish communities outside the Land of Israel. It is, however,
a Greek word. Traditionally, Jews referred their dispersion from their historical homeland with the
word galut (exile), signifying the centrality of the Land of Israel in their lives and religion.
Disengagement — The unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and part of the northern West
Bank in August 2005.
East Jerusalem — The section of Jerusalem captured by the Jordanian army in 1948. The army expelled
the Jewish residents and annexed the section. Israel captured it in 1967 and subsequently annexed
it to reunify that part of the city. The Palestinian Authority seeks to make it the future capital of a
Palestinian state.
Economic Stabilization Plan — A 1985 program dealing with the economic recession of the time. It led to
privatization and the beginning of the end for Israel's socialist era.
Fatah — Palestinian nationalist group established in 1959 to destroy Israel and replace it with a Palestin-
ian Arab state. Fatah took control of the PLO in 1969. It formed the government of the Palestinian
Authority. Though defeated by Hamas in the 2006 elections, it continued to run the Palestinian
Authority and rule the West Bank after Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip.
First Aliya — The fi rst wave of Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe to the Ottoman-ruled Land
of Israel during the last two decades of the nineteenth century (1881-1900): 30,000 -32,000 Jews
immigrated.
Gaza Strip — A strip of land 25 miles (40 kilometers) long by the Mediterranean Sea bordering Egypt on
the south. It is the part of the Palestine Mandate captured by Egypt in 1948, by Israel in 1956 -1957,
and again by Israel in 1967. Israel unilaterally withdrew from the territory in 2005, turning it over
to the Palestinian Authority. Hamas seized it in 2007.
Golan Heights — Mountainous region on Israel's northeast border captured from Syria in 1967 and an-
nexed to Israel in 1981. Israel has offered citizenship to the region's Druze residents. Syria demands
its return.
Greater Israel — A nationalist concept of the State of Israel during the 1970s and 1980s that included the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip in its territory, either annexed or permanently controlled.
Gush Emunim — A religious political movement whose members believed that settlement in Greater
Israel would bring about religious redemption. It was offi cially formed in 1974, but it had largely
faded away as an organized movement by the late 1980s.
Ha'aretz — Israel's left-leaning newspaper.
Hadash — An Arab Communist party founded in 1977 that replaced the Rakah Party.
Hamas — The Islamic Resistance Movement, an Islamist Palestinian group founded in 1988 that now
rules the Gaza Strip. It is linked to the international Muslim Brotherhood, which rejects Israel's
existence and seeks to establish an Islamist state stretching from the Jordan River (the eastern
border of Israel) to the Mediterranean Sea — that is, encompassing the territory of Israel. Hamas
is responsible for scores of terrorist attacks and for launching missiles into Israel from the Gaza
Strip, which it seized after an election victory in 2006.
Haredi (plural: Haredim)— Literally, “somone in awe or fear of the power of the divine”; refers to Jews
who adhere strictly to religious law; traditional Orthodox Jews, often translated into English with
the misleading phrase “ultra-Orthodox.”
Hasid (plural: Hasidim)— Jew who focuses on a charismatic, hereditary rabbi and follows a partly mysti-
cal approach to Judaism. One of the Haredim.
Herut — A conservative nationalist political party formed in 1948 that grew out of Revisionist Zionism
and the Revisionist Zionist militia, the Irgun. Herut led the opposition from 1948 to 1977, when it
won its fi rst election. It merged into the Likud in 1988.