2024 Israeli Labor Party leadership election

The 2024 Israeli Labor Party leadership election is scheduled to be held on 28 May 2024 to elect a successor to Merav Michaeli as leader of the Israeli Labor Party.

2024 Israeli Labor Party leadership election

← 2022 28 May 2024

Leader before election Merav Michaeli Elected Leader TBD

Background

Michaeli was first elected leader of the Israeli Labor Party in the party's 2021 leadership election. Prior to her election as the party's leader, opinion polling for the 2021 Knesset election had the party falling below the electoral threshold. However, the party's support in polling recovered after her election as its leader,^[1] and the party won seven seats in the 2021 Knesset election.^[2] Michaeli was re-elected as party leader in 2022, becoming the first Israeli Labor Party leader to win two consecutive leadership elections since 1984, and the only one to do it after the party first opened participation in leadership elections to all party members in 1992.^[3]

Labor won four seats in the 2022 Knesset election (the minimum number of Knesset seats that an individual electoral bloc could receive if they exceeded the electoral threshold). Michaeli faced heavy criticism for her decision not to partner Labor in the election with the left-wing Meretz party, especially after the election's results came in. Meretz won no seats due to falling narrowly below the electoral threshold, which helped Likud and hard-right ally parties win enough seats to form a right-wing governing majority.^[4] The Labor Party soon fell below the electoral threshold in opinion polling for the next Israeli legislative election.^[5]

On 7 December 2023, Michaeli announced her intentions to relinquish her position as party leader and retire from politics after the end of the 25th Knesset. As a result, the party prepared to hold a leadership election in April 2024.^[6]

The same day that Michaeli announced her plan to step down, Meretz chairman Tomer Reznik proposed that Labor hold its primaries jointly with Meretz.^[7]

On 25 February 2024, the party set 28 May as the date of the leadership election.^[8]

Candidates

• Yair Golan, former Member of the Knesset for Meretz, and former deputy chief of the Israel Defense Forces^[9] (endorsed by Labor MKs Gilad Kariv and Naama Lazimi)^[10]
• Azi Nagar, social and political activist from Gilo, Jerusalem. Unsuccessful Knesset candidate for Labor party in the 2006 and 2009 Israeli legislative elections^[11]

Campaign

On 26 February 2024, Yair Golan announced his candidacy. Golan is the former deputy chief of the Israel Defense Forces and a former Knesset member. Golan had first been elected to the Knesset in the September 2019 election on the list of the Democratic Union alliance,^[9] Golan was re-elected to the Knesset in 2020 and 2021,^[12] and served until the party fell below the electoral threshold in 2022. Ahead of the 2022 election, Golan had run unsuccessfully in the 2022 Meretz leadership election. Golan had received praise within Israel for his actions to rescue those caught in the Re'im music festival massacre during Hamas' 7 October 2023 attack. In his campaign for Labor party leadership, Golan has declared he wants to merge Labor with Meretz under a "new political framework".^[9]

References

1. "New leader seeks to save Israel's Labor party from extinction". France 24. 17 March 2021. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
2. Federman, Josef (25 March 2021). "Final vote results show major setback for Israel's Netanyahu". Associated Press. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
3. Keller-Lynn, Carrie (18 July 2022). "Michaeli clinches second elected term as Labor leader, a first in party's history". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
4. Keller-Lynn, Carrie (7 December 2023). "Assailed for left's Knesset woes, Michaeli says she will step down as Labor chief". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
5. Yerushalmi, Shalom (17 April 2023). "Labor MKs seek to replace leader Michaeli, claim party's future depends on it". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
6. Keller-Lynn, Carrie (7 December 2023). "Labor's Michaeli to quit politics, party to hold leadership vote in April". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
7. Marsden, Ariella (7 December 2023). "Labor leader to quit politics, calls for primaries". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
8. Sokol, Sam (25 February 2024). "Israel's Labor party sets election for May 28, months after current chair Michaeli's resignation". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
9. Horovitz, Michael (27 February 2024). "Ex-deputy IDF chief Yair Golan enters Labor party leadership race". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
10. Sokol, Sam (17 March 2024). "Labor MKs Lazimi, Kariv endorse Yair Golan for party leadership ahead of primaries". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
11. נגר, עזי. "עזי נגר מתמודד לראשות מפלגת העבודה בפריימריז 2024". הבמה הרעיונית של מפלגת העבודה (in Hebrew). Retrieved 11 April 2024.
12. Wootliff, Raoul; Magid, Jacob (26 March 2021). "Reform rabbi, Kahanist agitator, firebrand writer: The new Knesset's 16 rookies". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 26 February 2024.