Israeli political party founded in 1968 as the union of three socialist-labour parties. The Israel Labour Party and its predecessors led governing coalitions uninterruptedly from 1948 to 1977; since 1977 it has competed with the conservative Likud party. Its principal figures have included David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Dayan, Golda Meir, Shimon Peres, and Yitzhak Rabin