By GIL HOFFMANUpdated: JANUARY 19, 2019 19:25MK EITAN CABEL confronts Labor leader Avi Gabbay with a polygraph test proving that Gabbay lied.(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
The deadline for entering the February 11 Labor primary passed Thursday at 4 p.m., with 44 candidates paying NIS 10,000 for a realistic slot on the list that has been getting no more than nine seats in the polls.The 44 candidates are 22% more than ran in 2015, when the party was part of the Zionist Union that won 24 seats. More than 60,000 Labor members will be eligible to rank them in the primary.The list of candidates includes 12 current MKs, eight Arab and Druze candidates, haredi woman Michal Zernowitski, Reform Rabbi Gilad Kariv and former justice minister Yossi Beilin’s son Gil Beilin.Labor leader Avi Gabbay said he was proud that so many people of different backgrounds were running.Four current Labor MKs have announced that they are not running for reelection: Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin, Hilik Bar, Mickey Rosenthal and Eitan Broshi.Gabbay said in an official statement that he would announce his list of recommended candidates ahead of the primary. He denied a report on KAN News Thursday morning that his list had already been decided.The list of Gabbay’s recommended candidates according to the report, included MKs Shelly Yacimovich, Amir Peretz, Itzik Shmuli, Omer Bar Lev, Stav Shaffir, Michal Biran and Leah Fadida, publicist Emilie Moatti, journalist Henrique Cymerman and Yacimovich’s former political adviser Yair “Yaya” Fink, who is religiously observant.Cymerman, who made aliyah in 1975 from Portugal, is the only immigrant running.
