The NRP traces its ideological roots to Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook
National Religious Party
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The National Religious Party (also known by the Hebrew acronym "Mafdal") identifies itself with religious Zionism and is affiliated with the settler movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Effi Eitam, who entered politics in 2000 after a 30-year career in the army, currently heads the party.
Established in 1956 with the merger of religious entities supportive of the Zionist enterprise, the NRP traces its ideological roots to Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first chief rabbi of Palestine and originator of religious Zionist theories.
The main founders of the NRP were Doctor Josef Burg (father of former Labor Knesset Member Avraham Burg) and Haim Moshe Shapira, who focused the party’s activities on religious matters and building a Jewish society rather than a secular one.
However, Israel’s capture of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Six-Day War transformed the NRP, as it became closely identified with the settlers movment.
While the NRP is committed to Israel as a “Jewish democratic state,” it actively promotes the study of Judaism in Israel, particularly in the public school system, and seeks to strengthen national religious institutions
The NRP opposes the creation of a Palestinian state and believes Israel must be the only state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Hence, the NRP opposes the relinquishment of any land to the Palestinians as well as ceding the Golan Heights in any agreement with Syria.
Unlike some ultra-Orthodox parties in Israel, the NRP encourages service in the Israel Defense Forces.
(Click here for the NRP website.)
