(PLP)
A mixed Arab-Jewish political party established in 1984 by Israeli Arab lawyer Muhammad Miari from Haifa and two prominent Jewish leftists, Matityahu Peled and Uri Avneri, but supported primarily by Israeli Arabs. The party held its first convention in August 1985. In 1992, the party ran on a platform that advocated full equality for Jewish and Arab citizens (within the state's pre-1967 boundaries), recognized the right of both Jewish Israelis and Palestinians to national self-determination, formally recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization, and advocated total Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as well as from East Jerusalem and the establishment in those areas of an independent Palestinian state. In 1988, there was an appeal to the Central Elections Committee to have the PLP disqualified on the grounds that its policy platform was contrary to the security interests of the state. This appeal was rejected, and the PLP won one seat in the 12th Knesset. It failed to cross the threshold of 1.5 percent of the popular vote in the 1992 election, and its supporters drifted to other Arab or non-Zionist Arab-Jewish parties.
See also Peace Movement (Peace Camp).
Historical Dictionary of Israel. Bernard Reich David H. Goldberg. Edited by Jon Woronoff..