The chairman of the Labor Party, MK Amir Peretz, announced on Wednesday morning that he does not intend to run for the 24th Knesset.
"I will not serve in the next Knesset, I will continue to work for the Israeli public out of love for humanity and great faith in the need to bring all parts of the nation together, while the internal rift threatens to collapse the foundations on which Israeli society is built," Peretz said.
"All my life I have acted out of a sense of mission and personal example, and that is how I intend to continue to act," Peretz added, noting that retired judge Yaakov Shimoni will head the Labor Party's election committee.
The Labor Party has continued to flounder in polls, with most of them showing that it will fail to pass the electoral threshold.
Peretz’s announcement came weeks after he announced that he would not run for the leadership of the Labor Party, in order to allow a new leader to be elected and rehabilitate it. MK Merav Michaeli is one of the candidates that will seek the leadership of the party instead of Peretz.
Peretz also stated last month that he intends to run in the presidential election this summer.