Yair Golan was elected today (Tuesday) as the head of the Labor Party, with 95% of the voters’ votes. Golan, who was an MK on behalf of Meretz and previously the Deputy Chief of Staff, will replace Merav Michaeli who has led the party for the past three years.
“Tonight we stand before the citizens of the country to say clearly and decisively – Israel must change direction and immediately,” said Golan in a speech after his victory, adding: “We will invest all our hearts in overthrowing the government and bringing forward the elections. There is no more important task than saving the country and society.”
Golan promised to work to promote a “great and real political union in the camp” with Meretz. In the days leading up to the elections, he said that “with all the loyalty to one brand or another, we are in a difficult situation. This is not only a political failure, but also our inability to unite the camp.” Initially he planned to run on an independent list, but with Michaeli’s decision to leave the Labor leadership, about six months ago, he announced that he would run within the party.
In the last elections, Michaeli refused to run on a single list with Meretz, despite the concern expressed by her members of the bloc of parties opposing Benjamin Netanyahu, and Meretz remained outside the Knesset. Golan himself lost to Zehava Galon in the elections for the Meretz presidency in the same election.
In the election polls that have been conducted in recent months, Meretz passes the threshold, and Labor remains below it. Polls in which Golan led a united party gave it a higher number of mandates than Meretz won.
MK Naama Lazimi, a member of the Labor faction, said that “Golan’s victory is the first step in building a large and united democratic camp.” Gilad Karib, a member of the faction, said that “the members of the Labor party voted unanimously in favor of Yair Golan and in favor of uniting forces in the Zionist left.” The head of the opposition, Michaeli, and the member of the fourth faction, Efrat Reiten, faced him, Avi Shaked, who tried to be elected to the position in the past, and 61% of the party members participated in the vote.
Golan, 62 years old, was, among other things, the commander of the IDF IOS division and the commander of the Northern Command. When he was deputy chief of staff, he warned in a speech on the eve of Holocaust Day that “there is evidence among us of the processes that took place in Germany.” On October 7, he volunteered to participate in the efforts to defend the Gaza Strip, and rescued participants from the massacre at a party in Ra’im.
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