The leaders of the Democratic Union took a collective vow on Wednesday not to join a government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or any right-wing government whatsoever.
Their pledge comes after former Labor leader Avi Gabbay actively considered a proposal by Netanyahu, and negotiated with him, to form a government after the April election right at the very deadline for establishing a new coalition.
“We, the leaders of the Democratic Union, commit to: putting an end to extremist right-wing government,” declared Nitzan Horowitz, Stav Shaffir and Ehud Barak. “We will not lend our hand to a right-wing government headed by Netanyahu, and not a right-wing government headed by the puppets of Netanyahu in any situation, in any scenario, in any way. We will replace Netanyahu’s government with democratic government – a Center-Left government and return Israel to the [right] path,” they said.
Taking to Facebook, they said “enough with Netanyahu... he was destroying democracy to save himself from the criminal investigations into him.
“We won’t sit in his government or any right-wing government that endangers democracy.”
The leaders called on supporters to sign the same online pledge, although it had gathered only several hundred signatures by Wednesday afternoon.
In the final days of Netanyahu’s allotted time to form a government after the April election, the prime minister scrambled to find new coalition partners after Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman refused to join his erstwhile ally in government once again.
Gabbay negotiated with Netanyahu on brining Labor into a government, including for veto powers over any government measures that would impact the standing of the High Court of Justice.
The effort ultimately floundered after Labor MKs rejected the idea of joining the government out of hand.
The Democratic Union leaders also targeted the right-wing parties on Wednesday, mocking the union of New Right, Bayit Yehudi and National Union into what is now the United Right Party and boasting of their own values.
“We leave homophobia outside not inside [the party] because everyone has the right to love,” said Horowitz in a video featuring all three Democratic Union leaders on Twitter, while Barak said the party list was evenly split between men and women “because we are in 2019 after all.”