Pensioners Party head Rafi Eitan announced Monday that four of the party's five most senior Members of Knesset will not get spots on the party list in the next elections. Mks Moshe Sharoni, Sarah Marom Shalev, Yitzchak Ziv and Yitzchak Galanti will be replaced by new candidates, he said.
Health Minister Yaakov Ben-Yizri will remain in the party's top five slots, and will be joined by journalist Gidon Reicher. The party is expected to fare poorly in the elections, and may not win enough seats to enter the Knesset.
Earlier this year, MKs Sharoni, Marom-Shalev and Elhanan Glazer formed a breakaway party and briefly joined Russian-Israeli billionaire Arcadi Gaydamak. They later attempted to form a faction known as Justice for Pensioners, then rejoined the Pensioners party led by Eitan.
Sharoni said Monday that he had heard of Eitan's decision from the media. “I wasn't planning to run for the next Knesset, and I hadn't applied for candidacy, but this behavior is disturbing,” Sharoni said, adding that he would attempt to determine why he had been pushed out of the party.
Sharoni accused Eitan and Ben-Yizri of ruining the party. “The head of the party and the Health minister need to realize that the party failed because of them. And in the end, they're staying and everyone who fought for the party's principles, the principles that got us elected, is leaving.”
Galanti said he too had heard of his dismissal on the radio and not from Eitan or other party officials. Galanti titled Eitan's behavior “insulting,” and said he would consider establishing his own party.