Rabbi Gilad Kariv, the head of the Reform Movement in Israel, will be in the realistic fourth slot on the Labor Party list, which polls predict will win four or five seats.
Kariv, who is outspoken in his criticism of the haredim (ultra-Orthodox), was bolstered by haredi violations of coronavirus regulations being at the top of the news.
“The results are not only exciting for me personally but also for the Israeli Reform Movement and progressive Jewry as a whole,” Kariv tweeted. “I intend to advance the issues I have dealt with in Israeli society in the Knesset.”
The list will be headed by Labor leader Merav Michaeli, followed by former MK Omer Bar-Lev, who is a former commander of the IDF General Staff Reconnaissance Unit (Sayeret Matkal).
Political strategist Emilie Moatti, who speaks mother-tongue English and French, will be third on the list.
Lawyer and former children’s TV star Efrat Rayten will be fifth and former Blue and White MK Ram Shefa sixth.
Kariv received more votes than Moatti, and Shefa won more votes than Rayten, but they were forced down on the list due to Michael’s decision to alternate between female and male candidates.
Former MK Nachman Shai, who is a visiting professor at Duke University, will be eighth on the list. Ethiopian immigrant Yitzhak Time got the 15th-most votes. Efrat Local Council member Nava Fruchter Katz received 611 votes.
In the primary, 45,502 Labor members were eligible to choose five to seven from among 62 candidates in voting held online and in nine polling stations across the country. The turnout was 40%.
Michaeli said Labor members had chosen a high-quality list in the only primary that will be held in any party ahead of the March 23 election.
Asked on Channel 12 about mergers with parties of Ron Huldai and Ofer Shelah, Michaeli said now that the Labor primaries were over, negotiations would begin. The deadline for lists to be submitted to the Central Elections Committee is Thursday.
Former justice minister Tzipi Livni on Monday evening announced she would not run in the upcoming Knesset election. To her supporters, she said: “I know that Israel is important to you and that you truly believe that I have the power to save it in the next election. Unfortunately, the power to save is not in my hands, so you will not see me on the lists submitted to the Knesset this week. Instead, the power remains in the hands of us all.”
Idan Zonshine contributed to this report.