BREAKING NEWS

Labor members to choose next leader

Some 50,000 Labor Party members will be eligible to chose the successor to Avi Gabbay in the July 2 leadership race and not just a group of a few thousand party activists, Labor's executive commitee decided on Tuesday.
The decision opens up the election to outsiders who do not know the party's grassroots activists. Former prime minister and Labor leader Ehud Barak and former IDF deputy chief of staff Yair Golan are going to make a decision soon about whether to run.
Other candidates are expected to include MKs Amir Peretz, Itzik Shmuli and Stav Shaffir and former MKs Danny Yatom and Danny Atar.
The decision to hold the election among the party membership must be approved next Wednesday at a party convention. Ahead of that vote, Labor's law commitee will decide whether to also vote at the convention on a proposal by Peretz to have party activists elect the leader.
Regarding the candidates for Knesset, the executive committee decided that there would be a vote at the convention on electing the list among the membership or keeping the list from the April 9 election and using it for the race on September 17.