relevance of Judaism on issues such as Israeli personal status laws, education, culture, and municipal issues such as prohibitions on the selling of non-Kosher food (in prescribed areas, and occasionally, throughout a given municipality), and prohibiting transportation and public activities on Shabbat. The NRP operated a trade union (under the same name as the old workers' party, Hapoel HaMizrachi), a newspaper (HaTzofe), and a youth movement (Bnei Akiva). Only the youth movement still exists today. Post–Six-Day War The seeds of change were sown in 1967, when Israel's victory in the Six-Day War spawned messianic trends among religious Israeli Jews that resulted in many members of the NRP moving further right. After Israel gained control of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, Haim Moshe Shapira, the leader of the NRP and member of the Israel cabinet, believed that Israel should aggressively pursue peace talks with Arab states and supported immediate negotiations with Jordan over the status of holy sites in Jerusalem. However, the party became internally divided around the annexation of the occupied territories. Some factions favored withdrawing from the occupied territories in the event of a peace agreement, while others argued that it is a religious obligation to annex the territories. Around 1969, a new generation arose in the NRP, led by Zevulun Hammer and Yehuda Ben-Meir, called "the youth", demanding that the party pay more attention to socio-economic issues in addition to its concerns about Judaism and the modern state. From its inception, the NRP maintained an almost constant number of 12 members of the Israeli Knesset. In 1981, it shrank to 6 members. The reasons were diverse: an overall reduction in its natural voting population; the political moderation of many Orthodox Jews; its turn towards the right-wing; the growing importance of the right-left schism in Israeli politics; and the rise of Orthodox Sephardic parties such as Tami and later Shas. The Gesher – Zionist Religious Centre (, Gesher – Merkaz Tzioni Dati) faction was formed on 29 May 1984, during the 10th Knesset, when two MKs, Yehuda Ben-Meir and Zevulun Hammer, broke away from the NRP. Both were prominent members of the party, with Hammer serving as Minister of Education, Culture and Sport and Ben-Meir being Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. The faction took the Gesher part of its name from the youth faction within the NRP. The faction did not last long, as the two returned