Social Justice (political party)

Social Justice (, Tzedek Hevrati) is a political party in Israel headed by Russian-Israeli businessman, Arcadi Gaydamak. It was launched by in February 2007 as a social movement, but was transformed into a political party in July that year. It did not participate in the 2009 elections for the Knesset.

Background

The movement was founded on 21 February 2007. It had been announced in the Israeli media the previous day that he would be founding a political party. Whilst the new organisation was not originally a party, Gaydamak stated that it could turn into one at any time "given the circumstances".

At the time he suggested the movement would not seek ultimate power for itself, telling voters "Don't vote for Olmert, don't vote for Peretz - don't even vote for Gaydamak. Vote for Bibi". Nevertheless, a poll from late February gave Gaydamak's party 14 seats, while a late March poll indicated it would receive 9 seats if elections for the Knesset were held (compared to 31 for Likud, 17 for Labour and 11 for Kadima).

On 10 July 2007 Gaydamak launched Social Justice as a full political party, stating that the need to oust Ehud Olmert's government justified the creation of a new party. Claiming it could win 20 seats in the next elections and that he was the "most popular public figure in Israel", Gaydamak...
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