Stav Shafir
Stav ShafirFlash 90

MK Stav Shafir (Labor) announced on Monday that she would run for the leadership of the Labor Party if open primaries are held.

"We have a generation at our helm who has failed us, who was frightened and allowed the extreme right to take control of all the centers of power, over the legal system, the media and the Knesset," Shafir said in an interview on Channel 13 News.

"We must stop this, and the time has come for a new generation of leadership that is not afraid, that it is not willing to sit and play games and close deals with the extreme right, but rather to take care of Israel," she added.

Tensions have risen among the members of the Labor Party in recent days, after it was revealed that party chairman Avi Gabbay held coalition talks with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu despite vowing during the election campaign that he would not be a part of Netanyahu’s coalition.

Gabbay told Radio 103FM on Sunday that both Shafir and MK Shelly Yechimovich did not oppose joining a Netanyahu government. Shafir, however, declared on Monday, "I will not sit around the table of the government of Netanyahu - a corrupt person suspected of bribery, who is trying to destroy Israeli democracy."

"Anyone who knows my record knows very well that [Gabbay’s claim] is a complete lie. Gabbay also said that he would not enter into negotiations at all. I am very sorry over how things are being handled and how the party looks,” she added.