Left-wing party says it intentionally dropped the word 'Zionism,' as party with Jews and Arabs by definition cannot be Zionist.

The Meretz party confirmed that the word "Zionism" was removed from its platform in 2015, Israeli newspaper Makor Rishon confirmed. Israeli media reacted with shock to the disclosure.

Journalist Yishai Friedman spoke with several official sources in the party, and these sources confirmed that the word "Zionism" had been dropped intentionally.

"Meretz is an Israeli party, and it has Jewish and Arab members," Meretz Chairwoman Zehava Galon tweeted. "My 'Zionism' is not Makor Rishon's Zionism. The Jewish people are not the only ones who have a right to self-determination. The Palestinians have this right, too."

Two weeks ago, Arab MK Hanin Zoabi (Joint Arab List) said that Jews are "not a nationality and therefore have no right to self-determination." She also said the Right of Return belongs to Arabs - not Jews.

MK Mossi Raz (Meretz) tweeted, "Meretz never defined itself as a Zionist party. I am a Zionist, most of the Jews in Meretz are Zionists, but a party which includes Arabs by definition cannot be a Zionist party."

Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) tweeted, "The removal of 'Zionism' from Meretz's party line is sad and upsetting. Is the huge ideological argument no longer an argument between right and left but between Zionists and post-Zionists?"

Zionism was the ideological catalyst for the strugle for the establishment of the Jewish state,known as "The Zionist Enterprise," and whose founding head was Theodore Herzl.