The united list will be headed by Meretz chairman Nitzan Horowitz with Stav Shaffir in second place while former Prime Minister Ehud Barak has chosen to stand only as number 10. Shaffir was instrumental in bringing together Meretz and Barak. There will be an official joint announcement at 5pm this evening.
Meretz will receive five places in the top ten with Barak's party getting four places. Barak's deputy leader Yair Golan will receive number three spot on the list with seventh and ninth places reserved for Barak's party. Meretz's Tamar Zandberg, Ilan Gilon, and Issawi Farij will be in fourth, fifth, and sixth places with Mossi Raz in eighth place.
Details about the list were hammered out last night in Tel Aviv during a marathon six hour meeting. From the outset, Barak agreed to forego a high place on the list, if it would make a merger possible.
"The founders of the new union believe that the Democratic Camp is the necessary first step in the mission of returning Israel to the proper path," Shaffir, Horowitz and Barak said in a joint statement. They called a press conference for 5pm on Thursday.
Shaffir became the fourth of the six Labor MKs elected in the April election to leave. Then-party leader Avi Gabbay, his number two, Tal Rousso, and veteran Labor MK Shelly Yacimovich quit politics. Following Shaffir's departure, only new leader Amir Peretz and MK Itzik Shmuli remain. Peretz defeated Shaffir and Shmuli in the July 2 leadership race.
Former IDF deputy chief of staff Yair Goland will be third on the list. Meretz's current MKs will follow him. Representatives of Barak's party will also be seventh, ninth, 14th and 15th on the list.
Labor responded by saying: "We are happy that Ehud Barak is joining the Meretz list, which will prevent votes in the camp being lost to a party that would not have crossed the electoral threshold." The party added that the split made it clear that Labor presents a socioecomic alternative to the Right and can attract votes from the Right to help replace the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Former Meretz chair MK Tamar Zandberg welcomed the move calling it “a dramatic step to strengthen the left,” and that it would broaden the appeal of the Israeli left and bolster “positions of justice and equality as an alternative to the corrupt and messianic right wing.”
photo credit: SPOKESPERSON FOR THE DEMOCRATIC CAMP
