The Labor Party conference confirmed on Sunday evening that the election for the party leadership will take place on July 2 among all party members.
The Labor Party’s list for the elections for the 22nd Knesset list will remain as it was in the previous elections.
The candidates for party leadership are MKs Amir Peretz, Itzik Shmuli and Stav Shafir. If none of the candidates wins 40% of the votes in the first round, there will be a second round of voting a week later, on July 9.
It was further determined that if the elected chairman wishes to guarantee spots on the Knesset list for candidates of his choice, he would have to approve them at the party conference.
During the conference MK Shmuli called on MK Shafir to withdraw her candidacy for the leadership and support him, but she replied by taking a jab at him.
"I am ready to cooperate with anyone who is willing to fight. I turned to my friend Itzik and offered him cooperation, and the answer I found was different. The time for games and stories is over. I will cooperate with anyone who fights. Not with someone who speaks one way inside the room and a different way when he steps outside," she said.
During Sunday’s conference, outgoing party chairman Avi Gabbay addressed the internal conflicts in the party and explained his decision not to run again in the primaries and retire from politics.
"As you know, I chose not to run and on the personal level I took responsibility. I take responsibility for the result. I have a team but I am responsible. I also know unequivocally that our way and worldview are the most valuable and just solutions for the State of Israel. The right also knows that we will have to separate from the Palestinians, they know that there is no such country whose citizens are not equal, they know that they want a just economy in which the state takes responsibility for its citizens, these are our worldviews," Gabbay said.
"Alongside all this, we are unable to convince those good people to vote for our positions. Something between values and reality remains stuck. We are now at the start of a new and surprising election campaign. I call from here on all of our candidates and to you, members of the conference, to give the power to the public. The past two weeks have only demonstrated how much the internal conflicts are dragging us down. Give your support to whoever is elected,” he added.