Amir Peretz demands Arab minister to join coalition
Peretz criticized Blue and White leader Benny Gantz for not forming a minority government after the September election. He advised him to correct that mistake after Monday's race.
By GIL HOFFMANAlean El-Krenawi (L) with Labor leader Amir Peretz, February 27, 2020(photo credit: LABOR-GESHER-MERETZ SPOKESPERSON)
Labor-Gesher-Meretz will not enter the next government unless an Arab cabinet minister is appointed, Labor leader Amir Peretz said Thursday at a Tel Aviv press conference that was billed in advance as “dramatic.”Peretz said it was important to him to ensure that the Arab sector would be represented in the next government. Labor’s Arab candidate for minister if Blue and White leader Benny Gantz forms a government is Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Charlotte B. and Jack J. Spitzer Department of Social Work professor Alean El-Krenawi, who would be the first Bedouin minister.“After 24 years of academic work, I have decided to take upon myself a political post and become Israel’s first Bedouin minister,” Krenawi said at the press conference. “I am doing this as a message to all the sectors of Israeli society.”Krenawi was chosen in the past to light a torch on Independence Day.Peretz criticized Gantz for not forming a minority government after the September election. He advised him to correct that mistake after next Monday’s race.Peretz used the press conference to plead with Gantz to stop his efforts to take votes away from Labor-Gesher-Meretz.“This election should have had a different atmosphere,” he said. “I did not agree to take part in a festival of hate against haredim [ultra-Orthodox] or Arabs and their representatives in the Knesset.”
