New Likudniks kicked out of Likud primary

The final two candidates from moderate pressure group to appeal to High Court after disqualification.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Updated: JANUARY 31, 2019 05:03
A sign on a Jerusalem bus proclaims, ‘The Likud is strength.’ (photo credit: ERICA SCHACHNE)
A sign on a Jerusalem bus proclaims, ‘The Likud is strength.’
(photo credit: ERICA SCHACHNE)
The final two members of the New Likudniks plan to petition the High Court after they were disqualified from running in next week’s Likud primary, following a decision by the party’s election committee on Tuesday night.
The committee removed Hadar Weisman-Simhony and Nir Hirshman from the running, on grounds that they oppose the Likud’s values. One item of proof that was brought against Hirshman was that he praised a Labor primaries candidate on Facebook several years ago – someone whose NGO was a former client of Hirshman’s PR firm.
Another four members of the New Likudniks, who recruit members to the party with an aim to make it more moderate, were disqualified from the primaries in recent weeks, and hundreds of Likud members the group registered were removed from the party’s rolls.
Hirshman argued that the disqualification came in light of comments he made in a recent Channel 12 interview with the New Likudniks’ leadership.
“The election committee of my party decided to disqualify me and cancel my membership in Likud because I said [a prime minister] cannot accept gifts and because I said an MK must listen to his conscience on critical matters,” Hirshman said. “So I will say it again.”
Hirshman said the New Likudniks are “persecuted and followed, but we, who chased terrorists in alleys and risked our lives for this country will not be deterred by some bullies in suits.”
The two candidates immediately appealed the decision at the Likud’s internal court, and said they will not hesitate to go to the High Court of Justice in order to reverse it.
Last week, disqualified Likud candidate Dan Klarman told The Jerusalem Post that from the first time the group’s membership was challenged in the Likud court, they worked on the assumption that they would have to take their case all the way up to the Supreme Court.
“It’ll be surprising if we don’t get there,” Klarman said, calling the petitions against them “anti-democratic McCarthyite factors.”