With the final deadline for submitting final lists of candidates only days away, four left-wing parties have merged into two.
The religious left-wing Meimad party and the environmentalist Green Movement announced this week that they would run together, with Labor MK Rabbi Michael Melchior at the helm. Green head Eran Ben-Yemini will be #2, and representatives from each party will be fielded in the other slots in an alternating pattern. Melchior and Ben-Yemini have worked closely together over the years on pro-environment issues in and out of the Knesset.
Meimad’s recent agreement to run together with Labor MK Ami Ayalon disintegrated last week, for unpublicized reasons. Ayalon did not run in the Labor primaries, recently resigned – at the request of Labor leader Ehud Barak – from his post as Cabinet Minister Without Portfolio, and is not expected to be a member of the next Knesset.
Ben-Yemini said, “Rabbi Melchior is a staunch ally of the environmentalist movement, who has greatly helped in our campaigns in the Knesset and the government. We have fought shoulder to shoulder in the environmental arena, and now we will work together to win the public trust. The merger between the Green Movement and Meimad is a natural one and presents the Israeli public with a real alternative to the existing parties and patterns of thought.”
Even further to the left, Meretz and the new, as-yet nameless, left-wing party have announced that they will run together in the coming elections – although the move must still pass a significant hurdle: approval by the Meretz secretariat.
According to the agreement, members of the new party will receive the 3rd, 7th, 9th and 12th spots on the joint list. The first five candidates on the final list, as of now, are as follows: Meretz leader Chaim Oron, former Meretz MK Ilan Gil’on, television correspondent Nitzan Horowitz, Meretz MK Zahava Gal’on, and former Peace Now head Mosi Raz.
In places 6-10 will be Meretz MK Avshalom Vilan; Attorney Talia Sasson, whose report on the Jewish outposts in Judea and Samaria (Yesha) was attacked for being heavily slanted against the Jewish settlement enterprise in Yesha; rookie MK Tzivya Greenfeld, a hareidi woman from Har Nof, Jerusalem; Tzali Reshef; and Isawi Freij of Meretz, who was pushed to 10th even though he finished 6th in the Meretz primaries.
Arab Candidate Complains: Ideology Can't be Just on Paper
Freij is among the Meretz leaders who opposes the merger, which comes up for a vote on Sunday in the party’s Central Committee. “I am among all the senior Arab sector leaders who proposed that the 7th spot be reserved for our sector. I hope the members of the Committee realize the importance of our partnership. Ideology is not just written on paper. I think that to give us the 10th place and to say that we are partners is a mockery. We will not take this lying down.”
On the other hand, reporter-turned-politician Horowitz is very happy to be in 3rd place, and said, “The new Meretz-left movement will be the address for all green issues for all those who want a good environment in Israel, because only this merger connects between environment and society.” He had praise for the Meretz MKs and said he hopes he will be able to learn from them.
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