The Sephardim and Oriental Communities party represented Sephardi Jews and Mizrahi Jews who were already living in Israel at the time of independence, and was part of Minhelet HaAm and the Provisional government in 1948–49.
Under the full title of The National Unity List of Sephardim and Oriental Communities, the party gained 3.5% of the vote and four seats in the elections for the first Knesset in 1949.
[1] Represented by Moshe Ben-Ami, Eliyahu Eliashar, Avraham Elmalih and Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit, they joined the government as a coalition partner of David Ben-Gurion's Mapai party, with Sheetrit appointed Minister of Police.
[2] For the 1951 election, the party changed its name to The list of Sephardim and Oriental Communities, Old Timers and Immigrants.
On 10 September 1951 the party merged into the General Zionists, then the second-largest party in the Knesset and briefly a member of the governing coalition that made up the fourth and fifth governments (though they were expelled from the sixth after abstaining from a motion of no-confidence).