Editing Ale Yarok

{{use dmy dates|date=June 2015}}
{{Infobox political party
| name             = Ale Yarok
| native_name      = עלה ירוק
| colorcode        = {{party color|Ale Yarok}}
| logo             = Ale Yarok party logo, 2015.svg
| chairperson      = [[Oren Lebovitch]]<ref>{{cite web | last=Schindler | first=Max | title=Israeli marijuana is growing, but exports have nowhere to go | website=The Jerusalem Post | date=January 18, 2018 | url=https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israeli-marijuana-is-growing-but-exports-have-nowhere-to-go-537056 | access-date=November 24, 2018}}</ref>
| president        = 
| secretary        = 
| spokesperson     = 
| leader1_title    = 
| leader1_name     = 
| leader2_title    = [[Organizational founder|founder]]
| leader2_name     = [[Boaz Wachtel]]
| leader3_title    = 
| leader3_name     = 
| founded          = 1999
| dissolved        = <!-- {{End date|YYYY|MM|DD}} -->
| merger           = 
| split            = 
| merged           = 
| headquarters     = [[Jerusalem]]
| newspaper        = 
| youth_wing       = 
| wing1_title      = 
| wing1            = 
| wing2_title      = 
| wing2            = 
| wing3_title      = 
| wing3            = 
| membership_year  = 
| membership       = 
| ideology         = [[Green Zionism]]<br/>[[Legality of cannabis|Cannabis legalization]]<br />[[Green liberalism]]<br />[[Freedom of information]]<br />[[Harm reduction]]<ref>{{cite news |author=Chemi Shalev |url=http://forward.com/news/9185/prognosticators-turn-to-the-day-after-a-shar/ |title=Prognosticators Turn to the 'Day After' a Sharon Win |work=The Jewish Daily Forward |date=2003-01-24 |access-date=21 June 2015}}</ref>
| national         = 
| international    = 
| europarl         = 
| affiliation1_title = 
| affiliation1     = 
| colors           = 
| seats1_title     = Most MKs
| seats1           = 0
| seats2_title     = Current MKs
| seats2           = 0
| symbol           = {{Script/Hebrew|קנ}}
| flag             = Flag of Ale Yarok 1999.svg
| website          = {{URL|aleyarok.org.il}}
| country          = Israel
| slogan           = "(I'm) Proud of My Choice"<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/TJBdHroo4Dc Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20150112221115/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJBdHroo4Dc&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite video|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJBdHroo4Dc|title=מכניסים עלה ירוק לכנסת (Vote ''Ale Yarok'' for the Knesset)|website=[[YouTube]]|publisher=Ale Yarok|access-date=October 4, 2019|language=he}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
}}

'''Ale Yarok''' ({{langx|he|עָלֶה יָרוֹק||Green Leaf}}), is a [[Liberalism|liberal]] [[political party]] in [[Israel]] best known for its ideology of legalizing [[Cannabis (drug)|cannabis]]. To date, it has had no representation in the [[Knesset]]. Ale Yarok has not yet met the electoral threshold for inclusion in any of the elections that they have contested.

== History ==
Established in 1999 by Boaz Wachtel, Shlomi Sandak, and Rafik Kimchi, the party gained 1% of the vote in the [[1999 Israeli legislative election|elections that year]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.knesset.gov.il/elections/asp/eresults.asp |title=1999 Election Results (Final) |publisher=Knesset |access-date=21 June 2015}}</ref> and 1.2% in the [[2003 Israeli legislative election|2003 elections]],<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.knesset.gov.il/elections16/eng/results/Regions.asp |title=2003 Election Results |publisher=Knesset |access-date=21 June 2015}}</ref> but both times failed to pass the 1.5% [[Election threshold|threshold]] for representation in the Knesset. After these elections and despite the strong results in the 2003 elections, the chairman of Ale Yarok, Boaz Wachtel announced that he was giving up the leadership of the party, but remained in the position due to party members requests.

Before the [[2006 Israeli legislative election|2006 elections]] the party announced that it intended to run for a third time, despite the threshold for representation having been raised to 2%. The party competed for votes with the supporters of the [[Democratic Choice (Israel)|Democratic Choice]] (which later stepped down from running in the election) and with [[Meretz-Yachad]], which had also promised to act for the decriminalization of soft drugs; another competitor was the [[The Greens (Israel)|Green Party]] with a strong ecological platform. The party gained 1.3% of the vote, and came second among those parties failing to make the threshold.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.knesset.gov.il/elections17/eng/results/Main_Results_eng.asp |title=2006 Election Results |publisher=Knesset |access-date=21 June 2015}}</ref> After the election, Wachtel passed the chairmanship to Ohad Shem-Tov.

Before the 2009 elections, Shem-Tov was expelled from the party by Shlomi Sandak who was the temporary chairman of the Green Leaf Party. Internal disputes led the party to split with Shem-Tov forming the [[Holocaust Survivors and Ale Yarok Alumni|Ale Yarok Alumni]] group.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.3news.co.nz/News/InternationalNews/Holocaust-survivors-team-up-with-marijuana-activists-in-odd-coalition/tabid/417/articleID/90279/cat/61/Default.aspx |title=Holocaust survivors team up with marijuana activists in odd coalition |publisher=3 News |date=2009-02-09 |access-date=2011-04-20 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004142300/http://www.3news.co.nz/News/InternationalNews/Holocaust-survivors-team-up-with-marijuana-activists-in-odd-coalition/tabid/417/articleID/90279/cat/61/Default.aspx |archive-date=4 October 2011 }}</ref> The Alumni party later allied with the Holocaust Survivors party to contest the [[2009 Israeli legislative election|2009 Knesset elections]]. In this elections Ale Yarok was led by Israeli [[comedian]] Gil Kopatch.

For the 2013 elections, the party presented a broad liberal platform and ran with some members of the "New Liberal Movement" (an Israeli libertarian nonpartisan organization, also known as the Israeli Freedom Movement),<ref>{{cite web |author=Ryan Jones |url=http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/22946/Default.aspx?archive=article_title |title=Israeli libertarians lobby against big government |publisher=Israel Today <!-- Israel Today is more akin to a blog than a true news site; see: http://www.israeltoday.co.il/subscribe/subscribe.html--> |date=14 September 2011 |access-date=21 June 2015}}</ref> under the name "Ale Yarok-The Liberal list".<ref>{{cite news |author=Ben Hartman |url=http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Green-Leaf-unveils-libertarian-strain-ahead-of-polls |title=Green Leaf unveils libertarian strain ahead of polls |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post |date=10 December 2012 |access-date=21 June 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=Sefi Krupsky |url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel-election-2015/.premium-1.647663 |title=Israel's cannabis legalization party and the other slates that didn't make it |newspaper=Haaretz |date=19 March 2015 |access-date=21 June 2015}}</ref>

Oren Lebovitch has been the chairman of the party since December 2014. Lebovitch, the editor-in-chief of the Israeli Cannabis Magazine, lead the party to its highest number of voters on the March 2015 election.

== Ideology ==
The party's current [[political platform|platform]] is based on the [[Drug liberalization|legalization]] of the [[Cannabis sativa|cannabis plant]], [[cannabis (drug)|marijuana]] and [[hashish]], expansion of [[human rights]], [[free market]] and [[institutionalization]] of [[prostitution]] and [[gambling]]. In official publications the movement claims that "the partition between [[Right-wing politics|right-wing]] and [[Left-wing politics|left-wing]] is anachronistic"; it believes that any proposed solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be put on referendum in order to be legitimate. It takes a left-wing stance on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FVyOAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA281 |title=Israel at the Polls 2006 |author=Shmuel Sandler |author2=Manfred Gerstenfeld |author3=Jonathan Rynhold |date=18 October 2013 |publisher=Routledge |page=281 |isbn=9781317969921 |access-date=21 June 2015}}</ref>

== Election results ==
{| class=wikitable style=text-align:center
! Election
! Votes
! %
! Seats
! +/−
|-
| [[1999 Israeli legislative election|1999]]
| 34,029
| 1.00
| {{Composition bar|0|120|}}
| –
|-
| [[2003 Israeli legislative election|2003]]
| 37,855
| 1.20
| {{Composition bar|0|120|}}
| {{nochange}}
|-
| [[2006 Israeli legislative election|2006]]
| 40,353
| 1.29
| {{Composition bar|0|120|}}
| {{nochange}}
|-
| [[2009 Israeli legislative election|2009]]
| 13,132
| 0.39
| {{Composition bar|0|120|}}
| {{nochange}}
|-
| [[2013 Israeli legislative election|2013]]
| 43,734
| 1.15
| {{Composition bar|0|120|}}
| {{nochange}}
|-
| [[2015 Israeli legislative election|2015]]
| 47,157
| 1.12
| {{Composition bar|0|120|}}
| {{nochange}}
|-
| [[April 2019 Israeli legislative election|Apr 2019]]
| colspan=2 rowspan=4|Did not contest
| {{Composition bar|0|120|}}
| {{nochange}}
|-
| [[September 2019 Israeli legislative election|Sept 2019]]
| {{Composition bar|0|120|}}
| {{nochange}}
|-
| [[2020 Israeli legislative election|2020]]
| {{Composition bar|0|120|}}
| {{nochange}}
|-
| [[2021 Israeli legislative election|2021]]
| {{Composition bar|0|120|}}
| {{nochange}}
|-
| [[2022 Israeli legislative election|2022]]{{efn|name=Islam|Part of the Islamic Family}}
| 1,354
| 0.03
| {{Composition bar|0|120|}}
| {{nochange}}
|-
|}

== See also ==
* [[Cannabis in Israel]]
* [[Legal issues of cannabis|Cannabis: Legal issues]]
* [[Drug liberalization]]
* [[Drug policy reform]]
* [[Marijuana parties]]
* [[Politics of Israel]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist|2}}


{{Cannabis in Israel}}
{{Israeli political parties}}

[[Category:1999 establishments in Israel]]
[[Category:Cannabis political parties]]
[[Category:Cannabis political parties of Israel]]
[[Category:Green liberalism]]
[[Category:Green political parties in Israel]]
[[Category:Liberal parties in Israel]]
[[Category:Political parties established in 1999]]
[[Category:Political parties in Israel]]
[[Category:1999 in cannabis]]
[[Category:Words and phrases in Modern Hebrew]]