Netanyahu Demands 11 Reserved Slots as Condition for Likud Primary Vote

Likud’s constitution committee is set to decide Sunday evening whether the party will choose its Knesset list through a ranking committee or open primaries, but Benjamin Netanyahu has added a new condition that could reshape the process. According to a Friday report by Yedioth Ahronoth’s Yuval Karni, Netanyahu has told Likud local authority heads that he wants 11 reserved slots, or locked-in spots, up to the 20th place on the list as a condition for holding primaries.

That demand would give him influence over selecting at least half of Likud’s parliamentary slate. Until now, Netanyahu had reportedly asked for 10 reserved slots up to the 30th place. One Likud mayor said, “If Netanyahu gets 11 reserved slots up to the 20th place on the list, that will effectively be a bypass route around the arranging committee. In that case, the primaries would have almost no meaning.”

The decision on the selection method has already been delayed several times because of Netanyahu’s demands, and he now needs to settle the issue soon so the party can prepare for primaries if they are held. Likud’s court partially accepted an appeal by MK David Bitan against canceling the primaries, saying Netanyahu would need to push legal changes through party institutions if he wanted to cancel them himself. However, it refused to issue an injunction because no formal request to cancel the primaries had been filed.

In its ruling, the court said the petition appeared to rely on complaints from associates who claimed party leaders intended to cancel the primaries and establish a “committee.” The judges added that such briefings, while politically significant, have no legal weight. Meanwhile, Eli Shetivi, father of Idan, who was murdered at the Nova festival and abducted to Gaza, is considering running in the Likud primaries. He said, “I am in a situation of giving up everything except the mission dictated to me by my son Idan. I want to give a voice to those who were murdered, to do as much good as possible for the citizens of Israel.”