After her party was forced to hold primaries, MK Merav Michaeli points the finger of blame at those responsible for deleting "Labor" in the polls • "Amir Peretz is a disappointment and Itzik Shmuli - a partner in crime" • The full interview tomorrow in "Shishvat"
Merav Michaeli
Photography:
Kfir Ziv
After the district court earlier this week accepted its claim and ordered the Labor Party to hold primaries, MK Merav Michaeli is already planning its next steps in attempts to rebuild the Labor Party.
In an interview with Shishvat magazine to be published this weekend, Michaeli says of those responsible for the party's crash: "The first responsibility is on Netanyahu. We have been living in the Netanyahu era since 1993. He introduced new standards in Israeli politics, a new language that changed the Israeli public." Netanyahu turned it into good versus bad, good is right, bad is left. Netanyahu did so deeply delegitimization, not only to the left but to everything that comes with it - democracy, secularism, Arabs, peace. "Delegitimization of the center-left camp. It was incitement, it was severe violence that eventually led to the assassination of a prime minister."
She said, "The center-left camp is a victim of violence and is acting as a victim of violence. Netanyahu and significant elements have caused this."
So the Labor Party is collapsing and Bibi is to blame?
Is Bibi the one who crushed the Labor Party?
"He has a significant part in it, for sure. This is one of his great successes, he has crushed the political camp in front of him."
She describes Amir Peretz, whom she supported, as a disappointment, and says of Itzik Shmuli, "He is a partner in the crime and disaster of entering the Netanyahu government. Peretz and Shmuli no longer have a place in the Labor Party."
If she is elected party leader she says she will invite everyone to run in the primaries on the list, "a new list needs to be made. I want to make the Labor Party on the map again, then see how best to run. Maybe connect with someone. The most urgent thing is to get the feeling back. It's possible. There's a million and a half women and men who have voted 'work' in the past or potential voters. They need to get back the feeling 'this is happening', 'the party has been revived'. There will be a serious push to bring people in. I can not give names, It's important in the first stage. "
Last week, journalist Guy Peleg published a lawsuit filed by a parliamentary assistant who worked in Michaeli's office for 320,000 shekels, claiming that she abused her and employed her "an abusive deal. Fortunately, there should be no one working in the Knesset to see that this is false or unfounded," Michaeli said.
The full interview will be published tomorrow in the "Shishvat" supplement