Stav Shaffir
Stav ShaffirHezki Baruch

MK Stav Shaffir (Democratic Union) announced on Wednesday that she will run in the upcoming elections independently as part of the Green Party, which she chairs.

Before the September election, Shaffir left the Labor Party and joined the Green Party which later ran on a joint ticket with Meretz and Ehud Barak’s Israel Democratic Party, under the name Democratic Union.

"The Green Party is running for the Knesset. What is happening on the left is not a political camp – it’s the Titanic. I have no intention of crashing into an iceberg, but rather to ensure that there is an alternative to the government here,” said Shaffir.

"If at this very historical moment, the people of the Titanic are unable to join forces and save the state - they have no political and public right to exist," she continued.

Shaffir noted that as far as she is concerned, there is a desire for more alliances on the left.

"If they smarten up and go for unity in the left-wing camp - we will come with open arms and with the energies we knew to bring in the previous round. If they decide to continue with the suicide - we will run with all our might."

Shaffir had recently been in conflict with Knesset members from Meretz who were planning to place her and Major General Yair Golan, who represents Barak’s party in the Democratic Union, in lower spots on the party’s slate for the March election.

Last week, Shaffir strongly attacked the initiative to move her down from the number two spot on the slate and called for the holding of open primaries under a united party.

"All the voters of the Democratic Union should be allowed to come and choose the leadership and the order of the list,” she said, while also referring to the members of Meretz as the “dinosaurs of the left.”