According to several reports, hundreds of people who have filed requests to join the Likud received letters in recent weeks demanding they appear before a committee in Tel Aviv, often within the week and during work hours – or be barred membership to the Likud.
The recipients of the letters all have one thing in common: they joined the Likud as part of a wave of memberships that follows the resounding victory of the Land of Israel camp within the Likud. Many attributed that victory directly to the efforts of Manhigut Yehudit in signing up members for Israel’s ruling party.
The director of Manhigut Yehudit, Michael Foah, suggested that recipients of the letters contact Likud headquarters, informing them of their desire to join the Likud, their refusal to attend any interview and to send the message that they are aware of the dubious legality of the letter. Foah says he has brought the subject of the interviews up with the director-general of the Likud, Arik Brami, who promised to look into the matter.
A Likud spokesperson told Arutz-7’s Ezra HaLevi that requiring new members to undergo an interview is not something new, but is a practice that originated when Avigdor Leiberman (now of the National Union party) was the director-general of the Likud. “According to article 6.7 of the party’s constitution, the acceptance of new members is conditioned upon their arriving in person at the registration department or appearing before a Likud selection committee at their local branch.”
Asked by HaLevi why residents of northern and southern Israel had to take an entire day off from work to travel all the way to downtown Tel Aviv – on less than a week’s notice – even though there are local Likud branches in nearly every town in Israel, the spokesman replied, “this is the way it is done – interviews are conducted here, in Tel Aviv.”
The spokesman said that it was standard practice to investigate prospective members to make sure they were not members of another political party at the same time as they were joining the Likud. A November 26, 2002 article in Yediot Ahronot, however, reported that 4,500 members of the Labor Party that were registered in the Likud as well were permitted to vote in the Likud primaries even though it is against the law to be registered in two parties at the same time. The 4,500 members with ‘dual-loyalty’ were identified three months before the primaries – when the Labor and Likud parties compared membership lists – but were nevertheless permitted to decide who would head the party: Ariel Sharon, Binyamin Netanyahu, or Manhigut Yehudit’s Moshe Feiglin.
One Likud applicant, a new immigrant from the United States, told Arutz-7 that the letter he received reminded him of the methods used to intimidate Black voters during the 50s in the American south. “They were told they had to appear before a committee and prove their eligibility,” said the applicant – who asked that his name be withheld, “but as soon as this insidious discrimination was exposed and publicized, it only served to increase the number of new Black voters. My hope is that this cheap trick will have the same effect here in Israel – highlighting the weakness and desperation of the current regime and attracting new members to the Jewish Leadership faction within the Likud.”
Another recipient of a letter from the Likud office was Dorit Keinig, a longtime political activist who concluded that joining Manhigut Yehudit was the best way to strengthen the original tenets of the Likud party. “The letter I received was full of absurd claims that they had tried to contact me several times and that my membership would therefore be denied if I did not appear at the Tel Aviv offices within a week,” said Keinig. “I have worked with political parties in the past, and never, ever, would we reject an applicant – in fact we would sometimes even send a gift of some sort.”
Keinig sees a clear attempt to block the large numbers of new applicants who are joining the Likud through Manhigut Yehudit. “I called up the Likud office and after getting the runaround, was finally told that my membership would be put through,” said Keinig. “When I asked the woman on the phone whether all this trouble was because I had signed up through Manhigut Yehudit, she got audibly nervous and mumbled something about standard operating procedure before getting off the phone with me.”
Both Fuah and Keinig are encouraging those who receive such letters from the Likud to call the head office at 03 621 0606 or 03 621 0604. “Call them up and tell them that it is disgraceful that some forgotten law meant simply to verify that an actual person is applying for membership is being used to discourage those faithful to the Likud platform from joining the party,” instructs Keinig.
“Obviously the Likud party machine accepted the Arabs from Juarish recruited [en masse] by Omri Sharon without screening, yet difficulties are being placed in the way of Land of Israel supporters only,” read the latest weekly update sent out to supporters of Manhigut Yehudit.
The leaders of Manhigut Yehudit say they are not worried. “With God's help we will take care of all the new members, but this will now take far more time than in the past.”
The recipients of the letters all have one thing in common: they joined the Likud as part of a wave of memberships that follows the resounding victory of the Land of Israel camp within the Likud. Many attributed that victory directly to the efforts of Manhigut Yehudit in signing up members for Israel’s ruling party.
The director of Manhigut Yehudit, Michael Foah, suggested that recipients of the letters contact Likud headquarters, informing them of their desire to join the Likud, their refusal to attend any interview and to send the message that they are aware of the dubious legality of the letter. Foah says he has brought the subject of the interviews up with the director-general of the Likud, Arik Brami, who promised to look into the matter.
A Likud spokesperson told Arutz-7’s Ezra HaLevi that requiring new members to undergo an interview is not something new, but is a practice that originated when Avigdor Leiberman (now of the National Union party) was the director-general of the Likud. “According to article 6.7 of the party’s constitution, the acceptance of new members is conditioned upon their arriving in person at the registration department or appearing before a Likud selection committee at their local branch.”
Asked by HaLevi why residents of northern and southern Israel had to take an entire day off from work to travel all the way to downtown Tel Aviv – on less than a week’s notice – even though there are local Likud branches in nearly every town in Israel, the spokesman replied, “this is the way it is done – interviews are conducted here, in Tel Aviv.”
The spokesman said that it was standard practice to investigate prospective members to make sure they were not members of another political party at the same time as they were joining the Likud. A November 26, 2002 article in Yediot Ahronot, however, reported that 4,500 members of the Labor Party that were registered in the Likud as well were permitted to vote in the Likud primaries even though it is against the law to be registered in two parties at the same time. The 4,500 members with ‘dual-loyalty’ were identified three months before the primaries – when the Labor and Likud parties compared membership lists – but were nevertheless permitted to decide who would head the party: Ariel Sharon, Binyamin Netanyahu, or Manhigut Yehudit’s Moshe Feiglin.
One Likud applicant, a new immigrant from the United States, told Arutz-7 that the letter he received reminded him of the methods used to intimidate Black voters during the 50s in the American south. “They were told they had to appear before a committee and prove their eligibility,” said the applicant – who asked that his name be withheld, “but as soon as this insidious discrimination was exposed and publicized, it only served to increase the number of new Black voters. My hope is that this cheap trick will have the same effect here in Israel – highlighting the weakness and desperation of the current regime and attracting new members to the Jewish Leadership faction within the Likud.”
Another recipient of a letter from the Likud office was Dorit Keinig, a longtime political activist who concluded that joining Manhigut Yehudit was the best way to strengthen the original tenets of the Likud party. “The letter I received was full of absurd claims that they had tried to contact me several times and that my membership would therefore be denied if I did not appear at the Tel Aviv offices within a week,” said Keinig. “I have worked with political parties in the past, and never, ever, would we reject an applicant – in fact we would sometimes even send a gift of some sort.”
Keinig sees a clear attempt to block the large numbers of new applicants who are joining the Likud through Manhigut Yehudit. “I called up the Likud office and after getting the runaround, was finally told that my membership would be put through,” said Keinig. “When I asked the woman on the phone whether all this trouble was because I had signed up through Manhigut Yehudit, she got audibly nervous and mumbled something about standard operating procedure before getting off the phone with me.”
Both Fuah and Keinig are encouraging those who receive such letters from the Likud to call the head office at 03 621 0606 or 03 621 0604. “Call them up and tell them that it is disgraceful that some forgotten law meant simply to verify that an actual person is applying for membership is being used to discourage those faithful to the Likud platform from joining the party,” instructs Keinig.
“Obviously the Likud party machine accepted the Arabs from Juarish recruited [en masse] by Omri Sharon without screening, yet difficulties are being placed in the way of Land of Israel supporters only,” read the latest weekly update sent out to supporters of Manhigut Yehudit.
The leaders of Manhigut Yehudit say they are not worried. “With God's help we will take care of all the new members, but this will now take far more time than in the past.”