Social activist and reservist Omri Ronen announced that he will join the Democrats Party ahead of the upcoming elections during a faction press conference at the Knesset on Monday.
“The upcoming elections are the most fateful in Israel’s history. Just as I took responsibility over the past three years, I am doing so now. I cannot sit on the sidelines and hope things will turn out well,” Ronen said.
“Our country needs us to fight for it. That is the Israeli story, the story of the Zionist enterprise, people who rise up and build a country with their own hands, who take responsibility for their destiny.”
Ronen is a leader of the Brothers and Sisters in Arms organization who participated in protests against the government’s judicial reform. He is a lawyer and also interned at the State Attorney’s Office in the economic department, where his work centered on government corruption.
During the October 7 Hamas attacks, Ronen fought in Kibbutz Nir Oz and later served over 350 days of reserves in the country’s war against Hamas.
His grandmother, Nira Ronen, was murdered in her home in Kfar Aza. Citing his connection to the kibbutz, Ronen has also initiated the renovation and rebuilding of housing units there and is working to rehabilitate communities along the Gaza border.
“When the government declared the judicial overhaul, I took responsibility as a citizen of a democratic state and went out into the streets to exercise my right to protest,” Ronen said.
“On October 7, at the hardest hour we have ever known, when all our leaders disappeared, I went South to fight alongside my team,” he added.
The Democrats welcome Omri Ronen at faction meeting
The Democrats leader, Yair Golan, said he was proud to announce that Ronen had joined the party in remarks opening the press conference.
“I look at you, Omri, and I see the entire Israeli story, all its beauty and all its unimaginable pain,” Golan said.
“Omri, I know that someone who has stood against terrorists and faced a national crisis knows how to fight in the Knesset as well.”
“Today, you are entering a party that is a home. A home for values, a home for truth, and a home for everyone who believes that our hope is not yet lost,” Golan said.
Golan announced last month that several leaders from the judicial and hostage-protest movements would join his party in the upcoming elections.
Among those he confirmed joining were Moshe Radman, Moran Michel, Danny Elgarat, Hadas Ragolsky, Gaby Lasky, Ami Dror, Lee Hoffman, Kati Piasecki, Rotem Sivan, and Tomer Avital.
The left-wing Democrats Party is made up of the Labor and Meretz parties, which merged in 2024. Elections are scheduled to take place no later than October.