A Tel Aviv District Court verdict Saturday night may mean another chance for Jewish Leadership faction head Moshe Feiglin to win a Knesset seat on the Likud list.
The court ruled in favor of Likud candidate Michael Ratzon in a motion he filed against the party's decision to change the initial result of its primaries. As a result of the ruling, which came in a last-minute court session before the Sunday deadline for political parties to submit their Knesset candidates' lists, the Likud will be forced to reinstate Ratzon in the 24th slot, after having bumped him down to the 37th slot.
The decision drastically improves the chances that Feiglin will also regain his place in the 20th slot of the party's Knesset list. Another candidate who may benefit is Ehud Yatom.
"The [Likud] Elections Committee lacked the authority to change the result of the elections," Judge Yehuda Zaft determined in his verdict.
'Justice has been restored'
Ratzon said in response that "justice has been restored and the democratic process, as determined by the Likud members, has won. There are judges in Israel."
The judge did not determine the fate of Yatom and Feiglin because they did not file motions. However, he referred to Feiglin in his decision.
Regarding Feiglin's initial election to a slot with a very realistic chance of entering the Knesset, Judge Zaft determined: "It seems that there is no room for doubt that this election did not make the Likud chairman and its leadership very happy," he wrote. "In his motion, the plaintiff describes the moves which preceded the appeal to the Election Committee and it is clear that the move was intended to change the list in such a way that [Moshe Feiglin] would be distanced from the high and realistic position he had reached."
If Feiglin and Yatom file motions with the court, they stand a good chance of winning, following the verdict in Ratzon's motion.
A senior Likud source said Saturday evening that if Feiglin files a formal request to the Likud's legal institutions, "there is a very good chance that he will be returned to the 20th slot he was elected to in the primaries."