Likud Urges Supreme Court to Decide Quickly or Postpone Primaries by Two Weeks

The Likud party has requested the Israeli Supreme Court to urgently rule on a dispute regarding the eligibility of sitting Knesset members, ministers, and deputy ministers to run in the party's regional primary slots. The court responded on Wednesday by ordering both sides to submit their arguments by 16:30, warning that without a prompt decision, the primaries scheduled for the upcoming Monday could be delayed by two weeks.

The controversy stems from an appeal against the Likud party's internal court decision, which annulled a party conference resolution allowing current public officials to compete for reserved regional slots on the party list. The internal court ruled that such officials may only run on the national list unless they resign their posts and forgo state funding for the primaries. The ruling emphasized that "a sitting Knesset member cannot run for a guaranteed representation slot unless they resign from the Knesset and do not receive any state funding for the primaries."

This decision maintains a clear separation between national list slots and regional representation slots. The dispute follows a narrow approval of the contested clause at last week's Likud conference, which was immediately challenged by activists and candidates citing irregularities during the vote. The Supreme Court's ruling is now awaited to determine whether the upcoming primaries will proceed as planned or face a delay.

Key figures involved include Supreme Court Justice Daphne Barak-Erez and prominent Likud members such as Amichai Shikli, Yariv Levin, Miri Regev, Tali Gottlieb, Boaz Bismuth, Haim Katz, and David Bitan. The court's decision will have significant implications for the party's candidate selection process ahead of upcoming elections.