Kol HaAm ( Hebrew : קול העם , lit. 'Voice of the People') was a Hebrew-language newspaper in Mandatory Palestine and Israel . It was initially published by the Palestine Communist Party and later by its successor, the Israeli Communist Party .
20-510: Established in 1937, the paper appointed Communist Party member Esther Vilenska editor in 1943, and chief editor in 1947. Vilenska's second husband, Zvi Breidstein, was also an editor of the paper. In 1953 Kol HaAm and its Arabic-language sister newspaper Al-Ittihad published a controversial article on the Korean War , which resulted in the Minister of Internal Affairs Israel Rokach , ordering
40-782: A member of the Knesset for Maki between 1951 and 1959 and then again from 1961 to 1965. Born in Vilnius , Lithuania , Vilenska was active in Hashomer Hatzair in Vilnius , the city in which she attended high school, before emigrating to Mandatory Palestine in 1938. She attended the Hebrew University of Jerusalem , gaining a BA in sociology and an MA in History. Vilenska joined the Palestine Communist Party in 1940, and in 1943
60-543: A member of the right-wing party Gahal . Rakah became part of Hadash before the 1977 elections , and Vilner remained an MK until 1990 when he resigned as part of a seat rotation agreement, making him the third longest serving after Tawfik Toubi and Shimon Peres . Vilner's Soviet loyalist line was highly appreciated by the USSR; in 1978 he was awarded the Order of Friendship of Peoples . He did not accept perestroika and regarded
80-618: The 1959 elections , but was re-elected in 1961. However, he resigned again two months after the 1961 elections . As the Jewish leader of the Communist Party of Israel (CPI), 95% of whose members were Arabs, he rejected Zionism , publicized the Israeli nuclear weapons program in 1963, and opposed the imposition of martial rule on Israeli Arabs (imposed in 1949, it was lifted in 1966). In 1965 Vilner and several other Maki members broke away from
100-637: The Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948. Born in Vilnius , during the short-lived Kingdom of Lithuania , Vilner's political life began as the leader of the Zionist group Hashomer Hatzair ( Young Guard ). However, he soon grew disenchanted by what he viewed as a tendency in Zionist groups to dream of a Jewish homeland in Palestine , rather than change their current situation. Thus, he started working for
120-569: The fall of communism in the USSR as a coup . He was married to Esther Vilenska , another Israeli communist politician but divorced later, after having two sons together. His cousin Abba Kovner was a well-known Israeli poet and partisan resistance leader during the Holocaust. On June 5, 2003, Meir Vilner died, he was the last surviving signatory of the Declaration of Independence . A street in
140-489: The Kiryat Shalom section of Tel Aviv and had two children. They were married until Vilenska's death in 1975. Meir Vilner Meir Vilner ( Hebrew : מאיר וילנר , born Ber Kovner ; 23 October 1918 – 5 June 2003) was a Lithuanian-born Israeli communist politician and Jewish leader of the Communist Party of Israel (Maki) , at one time a powerful force in the country. He was the youngest and last living signatory of
160-632: The PCP. Along with other PCP members, Vilner stressed the necessity of upholding the declaration's promises to implement United Nations resolutions which called for a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and uphold civil and political rights for all Israeli citizens. In 1949, he was elected to the Knesset as a member of Maki. He resigned from the Knesset in December 1959, six weeks after
180-537: The banned Communist Party of Poland – now under the pseudonym Meir Vilner – until 1938, when he left Poland to go to British-ruled Mandatory Palestine . Most of his family who stayed behind was murdered in the Holocaust . In Palestine, Vilner studied history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem . During the last years of the British mandate, Vilner became disenchanted with mainstream Zionist politicians, claiming that Jewish anti-Arab racism
200-566: The darkest in Israel's history, Vilner demanded an immediate halt to the Israeli invasion of Arab-occupied lands. Vilner stressed that there was no other way to solve the conflict between Israel and its neighbors but mutual recognition of the national rights of Israelis and Arabs, including the right of the Palestinians to self-determination and independent statehood. On 15 October, he was badly wounded by
220-500: The gulf between Arabs and Jews. However, he subsequently changed his mind and supported the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine after the Soviet Union 's position on partition changed in the same year to one of support. On May 14, 1948, Vilner participated in the proclamation ceremony of the State of Israel and co-signed the Israeli Declaration of Independence on behalf of
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#1733106989793240-661: The jailing of the African-American communist activist Angela Davis. Vilenska published numerous pamphlets and several books in Hebrew, Russian, Yiddish and English. Vilenska's labor history, Confrontation and Unity within the Labor Movement (1889–1923) , was published posthumously in 1976. Vilenska met and married fellow Maki leader, Meir Vilner in the 1940s. They later divorced. Vilenska thereafter married Zvi Breitstein, also an editor of Kol HaAm. Vilenska and Breitstein lived in
260-471: The objective of the Declaration of Independence was solely to declare the establishment of the state of Israel. In 1992, the principles of the Declaration of Independence were formally incorporated into Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty , granting the declaration formal constitutional status. What became known as the "Kol HaAm Decision" also set the precedent that newspapers could only be shut down if there
280-564: The paper to close for 15 days. The papers filed a petition to the Supreme Court , which ruled that the suspension had been wrongly issued and should be set aside. The ruling utilised the Declaration of Independence in making its judgement on the issue of free speech, the first time the declaration was used as an instrument for interpretation. In doing so, the court reversed the holding in High Court Judgement 10/48 Zeev v. Gubernik that
300-484: The party to form the new party Rakah following disagreements about the Soviet Union 's increasingly anti-Israel stance (Vilner was on the USSR's side), and was elected to the Knesset on the new party's list in the 1965 elections . On 5 June 1967, Vilner was the sole Jewish deputy (joined only by fellow Communist Party of Israel deputy Tawfik Toubi ) to speak out in the Knesset against the Six-Day War . Calling that day
320-443: Was a "almost certain" danger to national security. The newspaper ceased publication in 1975. Writers for the paper included: This Israeli newspaper-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Esther Vilenska Esther Vilenska ( Hebrew : אסתר וילנסקה 8 June 1918 – 8 November 1975) was a Lithuanian Jewish Israeli communist politician, journalist and author who served as
340-580: Was also a widely published writer. She was a regular contributor to leftist publications around the world, including the Saturday Morning Freiheit, a Yiddish language weekly published in New York. Vilenska's articles focused on identifying trends within the Israeli left and finding solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but often delved into cultural and international issues, such as
360-548: Was appointed editor of the newspaper Kol HaAm (lit. Voice of the People ), becoming chief editor in 1947. In 1944, she was elected to the House of Representatives. She joined the politbureau of Maki when it was formed upon Israeli independence in 1948, and in 1949 became a member of the executive committee of the Histadrut , a role she served in until 1973. In the same year (1949), she
380-525: Was comparable to the antisemitism he experienced in Vilnius. He joined the Palestine Communist Party (PCP), which accepted both Arabs and Jews as members, and initially opposed plans to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. In March 1946, Vilner testified to the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry , claiming that partition strengthen the dependency of both states on outside aid and widen
400-648: Was elected to Tel Aviv 's city council. She was elected to the Knesset in 1951, stepping down from Tel Aviv city council. Vilenska was a member of the Knesset until 1959, and then again from 1961 until 1965. Her tenure in the Knesset was marked by vigorous defense of civil liberties and a desire to improve economic and social conditions for women. In 1973, she left Maki and founded a new party, Aki ( Hebrew : אק"י , an acronym for Opozitzia Komunistit Yisraelit ( Hebrew : אופוזיציה קומוניסטית ישראלית ), lit. Israeli Communist Opposition ), serving as editor of its monthly paper. In addition to her political work, Vilenska
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