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The Communist Party of Israel (known as Maki , an acronym for Miflaga Komunistit Yisraelit) was formed in 1948 by the remnant of the Communist Party of Palestine within the borders of the new state of Israel. The party was not Zionist but recognized Israel though it denied the link between the state and the Jewish diaspora and asserted the right of Palestinians to form a state in accordance with the United Nations resolution on partition. The party was part of the World Communist Movement and was an uncritical supporter of the Soviet Union. Maki had four seats in the first Knesset and elected between three and six seats to each subsequent Knesset until 1965.
After the Prague Trials of 1953 caused the pro-Soviet Labour Zionist party Mapam to break with the Soviet Union a number of Mapam members, including Moshe Sneh joined Maki with Sneh becoming a leading member.
In 1965 Maki split between a largely Jewish group led by Sneh which recognized Israel's right to existence and were critical of the Soviet Union's increasingly anti-Israel stance and a largely Palestinian group which was increasingly anti-Zionist. Sneh's faction retained the name Maki while the pro-Palestinian faction left and formed the New Communist List (or Rakah ) which became the party recognized by the Soviet Union as the "official" Communist Party.
The new Maki dwindled winning only a single seat in the Knesset in 1965 and 1969 and was unable to win support among Jewish voters despite having positions such as supporting the Six Day War as a legitimate act of self-defence by Israel. Maki joined the pro-peace party, Moked in 1973 (winning a single seat belonging to Meir Pail) and in 1977 joined others on the Jewish left to form The Shelli camp (Peace for Israel and Equality for Israel) which lost both its seats in 1981 and merged into Ratz in a one-to-three ratio prior to the 1984 elections. Rakah remained a presence in the Knesset and was increasingly seen as an "Arab party" though it was led until the late 1980s by Meir Vilner who was Jewish. In 1977, the party formed an electoral coalition with other anti-Zionists to form Hadash (the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality). In 1989, Rakah officially changed its name to Maki and remains the leading force in Hadash, which regularly wins between three and six seats in knesset elections.
Prominent past and present members of the Communist Party of Israel include Emil Habibi, Shmuel Mikunis, Toubi Tewfik and Esther Vilenska,
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