A new left-wing movement was added to Israel’s rapidly broadening pre-election political spectrum over the weekend. The group, which has chosen the name “Sheli,” an acronym for “Peace and Equality for Israel,” is headed by former Labor MK Arye Eliav who has been associated with a number of non-establishment factions since he quit the Labor Party.
Eliav was joined by Meir Payil of the leftist Moked faction which has one seat in the present Knesset, by Uri Avneri, the publisher who represented the one-man Haolam Hazeh faction in the Knesset and Black Panther leader Saadia Marciano. Its platform–favoring a Palestinian state on the West Bank–is almost identical to the position of the Public Council for Peace Israel-Palestine. The latter was formed by Eliav, Avneri and Gen. Matityahu (Matti) Peled, a group that aroused bitter controversy in Israel and abroad because of its private meetings with PLO representatives in Paris.
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