Jerusalem Venture Partners founder and managing partner Erel Margalit is
expected to enter the crowded field of candidates for the chairmanship of the
Labor Party at an event in the capital on Wednesday.
Margalit will join
Labor MKs Isaac Herzog, Shelly Yacimovich, and Amir Peretz, and Union of Local
Authorities in Israel chairman Shlomo Buhbut as candidates in the September 12
primary race that will determine who will replace Ehud Barak at the helm of the
troubled party that Barak split three months ago.
The venture capitalist
gained fame for selling the Israeli company Chromatis to Lucent Technologies for
$4.8 billion in 2000, in what was the largest takeover in Israeli history at the
time. His latest venture is Labor Now, an effort to registering thousands of new
Labor members.
“I am registering a lot of new members to the Labor Party
and there is a lot of pressure on me to run for the chairmanship,” Margalit said
in a weekend interview with
Yediot Aharonot’s Sever Plocker.
“I am
considering it responsibly.
It is clearly not simple with everything I am
involved with at JVP and my projects in Jerusalem,” he said.
“But on the
other hand, to make Labor relevant again and return the party to power, Labor
needs a revolution.
None of the candidates from within the party can
bring this revolution, so it must come from outside.”
Margalit supported
Peretz when he was elected Labor leader in 2005, as did
Yacimovich.
Herzog and Yacimovich are set to face off for the first time
since a date for the race was set, at a Labor event in Hadera on
Thursday.
Herzog was received warmly at Mimouna events on Monday and
Tuesday despite disparaging reports in Haaretz that suggested he had made
negative remarks about Peretz and other Moroccan immigrants in closed
conversations five years ago.
Herzog, who has vigorously denied the
reports, reached out to Moroccan immigrants at the events and suggested making
Mimouna an official national holiday.