Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the Chairman of the Labor Party, has announced the format of the party's list of Knesset candidates. He announced that the 15th spot would be reserved for an Arab - most likely incumbent MK and Culture and Sport Minister Raleb Majadele.
Majadele responded with disdain. "The Arab citizen cannot be in the 15th place, behind 14 Jews," he told Radio Tel Aviv. He further indicated that the 15th spot on Labor's list is not a "realistic" spot; the most recent polls show that Labor, which currently has 19 Knesset seats, will receive between 10 and 16-17 in the coming election.
Barak also announced that two of the top-10 spots - numbers 5 and 9 - will be reserved for the two women who receive the most votes in the party primaries, unless they are voted into even higher spots. In addition, those who finish 3rd and 4th among the women will be guaranteed the 14th and 19th spots.
The 6th spot has been reserved for former party leader Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, and Number 12 is being saved for the moshavim's representative, Barak ally Shalom Simchon. Number 13 will be manned by the representative of the kibbutzim, who has not yet been chosen. Places 16, 17 and 18 are for the Druze, inner city neighborhoods and new immigrants, respectively.
The party primaries will be held on December 2.
Among the new faces planning to run for a spot on the Labor list is Yariv Oppenheimer, director of the radical left-wing Peace Now organization.