The leader of Israel’s liberal Meretz party quit Wednesday in a shocking move that signals a changing of the guard in Israel’s left and surprised the party’s faithful. One is chairwoman Zehava Gal-On, who acknowledged frankly that “conversations with party members around the country showed they want new leadership.” The other is Meretz Knesset member Ilan Gilon, who blamed his withdrawal on a “medical event” he had experienced.
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Gilon vowed, however, to continue to serve the public as chairman of the party faction in the Knesset.
Mossi Raz, another lawmaker from the party, also said he would quit the race. Until changing the method by which its leadership was chosen (to a primary system), the Meretz head was elected by about 1,000 party delegates at the party conference. But after the change, about 12,000 people joined the party.
A source within Meretz suggested that the newcomers are likely to oust other long-time senior figures within the party, not just Gal-On and Gilon.
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A recent survey predicted disaster for Gal-On in a Meretz primary, and victory to Tamar Zandberg. Top sources within the party also suggested that Zandberg had a comfortable lead over Gal-On. It seems that the older generation of party members, Gal-On’s support base, is also leaning towards Zandberg.
A few months ago Galon stepped down as a lawmaker but remained the party leader. According to Haaretz’s Ravit Hecht, Galon may be the most prominent left-wing figure in Israel today and leaves a checkered legacy in Meretz.
“While Galon is indeed an honest, intelligent politician with a rare sense of humor, worthy of all the superlatives that anyone who knows her can unhesitatingly come up with, at the end of the day she’s a politician. To be more precise, she’s a politician who excels in last-ditch campaigns, like the one Meretz conducted before the last elections when the party was hovering dangerously near the electoral threshold,” Hecht wrote.
Internally, Hecht wrote “Galon knows how to enthusiastically explain how Meretz needs to be refreshed, to open its ranks and conduct radical experiments like open primaries for the Knesset list, an idea that was rejected twice by the convention.”
While Gal-On is popular within the Arab community, she was disappointed by low rates of registration for the party there. A breakdown of party members shows that a fifth are 22 or younger. It also shows that 7,000 live in Tel Aviv and 2,000 in Jerusalem.
Gal-On commented today that she didn’t regret the change for a moment. “It was a huge success,” she said. “My whole political life, I have fought for the future, not my job.”
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