Braverman to appeal Labor court to hold party meeting
Minority Affairs Minister submitted a petition with over 500 signatures calling on the party to hold a debate on the peace process.
By REBECCA ANNA STOIL311_Avishai Braverman(photo credit: Associated Press)
Minority Affairs Minister Avishay Braverman is expected to appeal Sunday to the Labor Party court, demanding that its governing council be convened within 30 days.Braverman, who has been one of Labor Chairman Ehud Barak’s most vocal opponents in recent months, submitted a petition with over 500 signatures in December, calling on the party to hold a debate on the peace process.In the past week, Braverman’s supporters held talks with Labor Party officials in an attempt to reach a mutually agreed-upon date for such a meeting, with mid- February pegged as a likely timeframe, but the parties failed to reach an agreement.“We regret that in spite of our willingness for compromise, a date has still yet to be set for the council’s meeting, and we believe that the party court will act quickly in order to uphold the party’s constitution as written,” issued Braverman’s office in a statement Saturday night.Last Sunday, Barak released a statement agreeing for the first time to hold a Labor convention that could decide whether or not the party would stay in the coalition.But despite requests to hold the convention within a month, he said he would hold it only within three.A day later during a faction meeting, Barak urged Braverman to quit the government and the Knesset respectively.“Whoever cannot follow the rules should do what [former Labor MK] Ephraim Sneh did and leave their mandate to the party, or what [former MK] Ophir Paz- Pines did and quit the government,” Barak said. “No one represents himself in the Knesset or the Cabinet. They represent the party.”
