Labor leader Amir Peretz announces he has no intention to run for Knesset
"I will continue to work for the Israeli public out of love and great faith" and act "out of a sense of mission and personal example."
By GIL HOFFMANChairman of the Labor party Amir Peretz seen during a press conference with Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz and party members in Tel Aviv on March 12, 2020.(photo credit: TOMER NEUBERG/FLASH90)
Labor Party chairman Amir Peretz announced on Wednesday that he has no intention to run for the 24th Knesset in the March 23 election.“I will not serve in the next Knesset,” Peretz said. “I will continue to work for the Israeli public out of love and great faith, because of the need to bring all parts of the nation together, while internal strife threatens to bring down the foundations on which Israeli society is built. All my life I have acted out of a sense of mission and personal example, and that is how I intend to continue.”Peretz, 68, was first elected to the Knesset in 1988. He is the longest-serving MK in the current Knesset, along with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Community Affairs Minister Tzachi Hanegbi.He served as leader of Labor twice. Peretz had already announced last month that he would not run for re-election as Labor leader.The Tel Aviv District Court has ruled that the race for Labor leader and its Knesset candidates must be held among party members. The race was set for January 24.But Peretz’s associates appealed the decision to the Supreme Court on January 5 so that others besides party members could run, and the court has not yet ruled.The only candidates who have announced they are running for Labor leader are MK Merav Michaeli and advertising executive Gil Beilin, the son of former Labor Party minister Yossi Beilin.Welfare and Social Services and Social Equality Minister Itzik Shmuli is also considering running.Several other parties have also offered these three to run with them.“We have elected the Honorable Justice Shimoni to head the Labor Party’s election committee, which will ensure a fair, transparent and completely independent democratic process,” Peretz said.
