(27.01.) She broke away from Labor in 1973, leading the Ratz party, which emphasized civil rights and feminism. In 1992, Ratz coalesced with the left-wing Mapam movement, becoming the Meretz Party. Under her leadership, Meretz won 12 seats in the Knesset and helped provide the political support Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin needed the following year to sign the Oslo peace accords with the Palestinians.

Aloni was education minister minister in the Rabin government but was forced out after a year because of a string of controversies over her staunch defense of secularism.