8 mar 2019
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Thousands of ultra-Orthodox youths violently disrupted a Women of the Wall prayer service, on Friday, forcing the multi-denominational feminist group to move to another location after two of its members sustained injuries near the Western Wall.
According to the spokesperson of Women of the Wall, the group was holding an anniversary prayer service, celebrating 30 years since its establishment, however, the gathering drew thousands of ultra-Orthodox youths to organize protests with several rabbis, calling on school students to head to the Western Wall plaza to demonstrate against the service. |
Hebrew-language news outlets reported that the spokesperson said that several elederly members were shoved to the ground by ultra-Orthodox protesters, stressing that the protest was more violent than expected.
Sources confirmed that two members were injured and received necessary medical treatment.
A statement issued by the Women of the Wall charged Israeli police with “abandoning” them during the protest, as they were physically and verbally assaulted by ultra-Orthodox men and women.
The Women of the Wall also criticized the Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch for refusing to sign off on a speaker system, which they requested as the number of expected attendees fit the protocol.
Rabinovitch responded by saying, “Women using loudspeakers is against religious law, as determined the sages. It doesn’t coincide with the customs of this place.”
Furthermore, the Women of the Wall stated, “Our organization will not be deterred at all. We will continue to pray at the Western Wall in our own way and no one will frighten us.”
Sources confirmed that two members were injured and received necessary medical treatment.
A statement issued by the Women of the Wall charged Israeli police with “abandoning” them during the protest, as they were physically and verbally assaulted by ultra-Orthodox men and women.
The Women of the Wall also criticized the Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch for refusing to sign off on a speaker system, which they requested as the number of expected attendees fit the protocol.
Rabinovitch responded by saying, “Women using loudspeakers is against religious law, as determined the sages. It doesn’t coincide with the customs of this place.”
Furthermore, the Women of the Wall stated, “Our organization will not be deterred at all. We will continue to pray at the Western Wall in our own way and no one will frighten us.”
6 mar 2019
Michael Ben-Ari and Itamar Ben-Gvir holding a mock coffin draped with an Israeli flag during one of their protests
Central Elections Committee likely to back Mandelblit bid to disqualify former Kahane acolyte Michael Ben-Ari from standing for parliament on grounds of 'extreme evidence of incitement'; fellow party member Itamar Ben-Gvir allowed to stand
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan decided Tuesday night that former MK Michael Ben-Ari, an extreme-right politician who heads the Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, will be disqualified from running for the next Knesset on the basis of incitement to racism. The decision looks likely to be supported by a majority of members of the Central Elections Committee.
The attorney general also determined that another Otzma Yehudit party member known for his racist utterances, Itamar Ben-Gvir, will be allowed to run for office, “despite mounting evidence against him that are incredibly disturbing, nearly deeming his Knesset nomination disqualified.” Otzma Yehudit was founded by Ben-Ari and fellow former far-right MK Aryeh Eldad, originally under the name Otzma LeYisrael (Power to Israel). Both Ben-Ari and Ben-Gvir are former followers of ultra-nationalist Rabbi Meir Kahane, whose Kach party was barred from the Knesset in 1994.
Mandelblit's decision follows a petition by MKs Stav Shaffir (Labor) and Tamar Zandberg (Meretz) and the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, which was supported by Arab lawmakers as well as the Yesh Atid Party. It was to be discussed Wednesday by the Central Elections Committee, and if it chooses to disqualify Ben-Ari the case will be heard by the High Court of Justice, which will be the final deciding authority on the matter.
According to the AG, the decision to disqualify Ben-Ari is based on several videos, some even posted on Ben-Ari’s Facebook page, in which he “systematically made racist and inciting statements based on national and ethnic characteristics against the Arab population.”
Mandelblit further said that Ben-Ari calls for violently stripping the Arab population of its rights, branding Arabs as “a murderous nation” and as possessing “a murderous and treacherous nature.”
“This harsh and extreme evidence prove this (incitement against Arabs) is the main agenda and cause for the abovementioned Knesset nominee… He works to make these ideas a reality and his running for public office aims to facilitate it,” concluded the AG.
Mandelblit was referring, among others, to two quotes by Ben-Ari from 2018 in which he called for violence against Israel's Arab community.
In May 2018, Ben-Ari said: "Arabs in Haifa are no different from the ones in Gaza… They are the enemy within, they're a fifth column. You need to call a dog by its name - they are our enemies, and they want to annihilate us."
In August 2018, he said that, "the equation has to change — if you speak against a Jew, you're not going to be alive. Not going to be alive! You're not going to be deported or have your citizenship revoked. You're not going to be alive! You'll be put in front of a firing squad, taken down — this is what Arabs understand."
Otzma Yehudit said in response to the ruling that is “proof that AG Mandelblit and State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan are the ones running the country,” and lamented that the two did not disqualify the Arab parties from running for office despite “their incitement against Israel and blatant support for terror.”
The extremist party also accused the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism of lying to the attonrey general in order to have Ben-Ari disqualified. “We hope the election committee will show the AG that hypocrisy has its limits… The Reform (the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism) deceived Mandelblit and filled partial recordings.”
The Union of Right-Wing Parties, of which Otzma Yehudit is a member, also slammed Mandelblit for his decision, calling him “the same attorney general who allows Arab MKs who support terror and incite against the state to run for office.”
“The rule of clerks is scary. Someone has made it his goal to bring down the rule of the right, and he’s using all means possible, but the will of the people will be heard loud and clear on election day, as it should in a democratic state,” the Union of Right-Wing Parties concluded.
Central Elections Committee likely to back Mandelblit bid to disqualify former Kahane acolyte Michael Ben-Ari from standing for parliament on grounds of 'extreme evidence of incitement'; fellow party member Itamar Ben-Gvir allowed to stand
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan decided Tuesday night that former MK Michael Ben-Ari, an extreme-right politician who heads the Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, will be disqualified from running for the next Knesset on the basis of incitement to racism. The decision looks likely to be supported by a majority of members of the Central Elections Committee.
The attorney general also determined that another Otzma Yehudit party member known for his racist utterances, Itamar Ben-Gvir, will be allowed to run for office, “despite mounting evidence against him that are incredibly disturbing, nearly deeming his Knesset nomination disqualified.” Otzma Yehudit was founded by Ben-Ari and fellow former far-right MK Aryeh Eldad, originally under the name Otzma LeYisrael (Power to Israel). Both Ben-Ari and Ben-Gvir are former followers of ultra-nationalist Rabbi Meir Kahane, whose Kach party was barred from the Knesset in 1994.
Mandelblit's decision follows a petition by MKs Stav Shaffir (Labor) and Tamar Zandberg (Meretz) and the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, which was supported by Arab lawmakers as well as the Yesh Atid Party. It was to be discussed Wednesday by the Central Elections Committee, and if it chooses to disqualify Ben-Ari the case will be heard by the High Court of Justice, which will be the final deciding authority on the matter.
According to the AG, the decision to disqualify Ben-Ari is based on several videos, some even posted on Ben-Ari’s Facebook page, in which he “systematically made racist and inciting statements based on national and ethnic characteristics against the Arab population.”
Mandelblit further said that Ben-Ari calls for violently stripping the Arab population of its rights, branding Arabs as “a murderous nation” and as possessing “a murderous and treacherous nature.”
“This harsh and extreme evidence prove this (incitement against Arabs) is the main agenda and cause for the abovementioned Knesset nominee… He works to make these ideas a reality and his running for public office aims to facilitate it,” concluded the AG.
Mandelblit was referring, among others, to two quotes by Ben-Ari from 2018 in which he called for violence against Israel's Arab community.
In May 2018, Ben-Ari said: "Arabs in Haifa are no different from the ones in Gaza… They are the enemy within, they're a fifth column. You need to call a dog by its name - they are our enemies, and they want to annihilate us."
In August 2018, he said that, "the equation has to change — if you speak against a Jew, you're not going to be alive. Not going to be alive! You're not going to be deported or have your citizenship revoked. You're not going to be alive! You'll be put in front of a firing squad, taken down — this is what Arabs understand."
Otzma Yehudit said in response to the ruling that is “proof that AG Mandelblit and State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan are the ones running the country,” and lamented that the two did not disqualify the Arab parties from running for office despite “their incitement against Israel and blatant support for terror.”
The extremist party also accused the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism of lying to the attonrey general in order to have Ben-Ari disqualified. “We hope the election committee will show the AG that hypocrisy has its limits… The Reform (the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism) deceived Mandelblit and filled partial recordings.”
The Union of Right-Wing Parties, of which Otzma Yehudit is a member, also slammed Mandelblit for his decision, calling him “the same attorney general who allows Arab MKs who support terror and incite against the state to run for office.”
“The rule of clerks is scary. Someone has made it his goal to bring down the rule of the right, and he’s using all means possible, but the will of the people will be heard loud and clear on election day, as it should in a democratic state,” the Union of Right-Wing Parties concluded.
Richard Falk, former UN special rapporteur on human rights in Palestine, said that the Palestinians are victims of Israel’s discrimination and criminal acts.
In press remarks, Falk affirmed that the Palestinians are isolated and exposed to apartheid policy on their native land.
The former UN official stressed the importance of the Palestinian society’s role in building the future of Palestine, defending its human rights and facing daily suffering, adding that the future of Palestine depends on peaceful resistance.
In press remarks, Falk affirmed that the Palestinians are isolated and exposed to apartheid policy on their native land.
The former UN official stressed the importance of the Palestinian society’s role in building the future of Palestine, defending its human rights and facing daily suffering, adding that the future of Palestine depends on peaceful resistance.
5 mar 2019
By: Ramzy Baroud
Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle. His latest book is The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story (Pluto Press, London, 2018). He earned a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter and is a Non-Resident Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, UCSB.
Immediately after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forged an alliance with the fringe political group, Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power), a widespread outrage ensued.
The anger did not emanate only from the Center, Left and Arab parties, but from some in the Right as well. Even the pro-Israel lobby in the US, known for its hawkish political views, spoke out against the sinister union.
“The views of Otzma Yehudit”, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) tweeted, “are reprehensible. They do not reflect the core values that are the very foundation of the State of Israel.”
But what if they do? And what if “Otzma Yehudit” is but a different political articulation of mainstream Israeli views, reflecting the very “core values” that even AIPAC has been blindly defending since its inception in 1953?
Prior to the alliance between Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, Rafi Peretz’s far-right Jewish Home, and Otzma Yehudit, which was struck on February 20, Israel was hardly a liberal democracy that shunned racism and embraced political pluralism. Indeed, it must be understood that the inclusion of Otzma Yehudit in Israel’s mainstream political scene is consistent with the moral corruption of Israeli politics as a whole.
To protest the alliance between Netanyahu and the fanatical leaders of Otzma Yehudit is to suggest that mainstream Israeli politicians don’t represent the very chauvinistic, racist and violent ideals that the extremist party has championed since its formation in 2012.
Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle. His latest book is The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story (Pluto Press, London, 2018). He earned a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter and is a Non-Resident Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, UCSB.
Immediately after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forged an alliance with the fringe political group, Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power), a widespread outrage ensued.
The anger did not emanate only from the Center, Left and Arab parties, but from some in the Right as well. Even the pro-Israel lobby in the US, known for its hawkish political views, spoke out against the sinister union.
“The views of Otzma Yehudit”, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) tweeted, “are reprehensible. They do not reflect the core values that are the very foundation of the State of Israel.”
But what if they do? And what if “Otzma Yehudit” is but a different political articulation of mainstream Israeli views, reflecting the very “core values” that even AIPAC has been blindly defending since its inception in 1953?
Prior to the alliance between Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, Rafi Peretz’s far-right Jewish Home, and Otzma Yehudit, which was struck on February 20, Israel was hardly a liberal democracy that shunned racism and embraced political pluralism. Indeed, it must be understood that the inclusion of Otzma Yehudit in Israel’s mainstream political scene is consistent with the moral corruption of Israeli politics as a whole.
To protest the alliance between Netanyahu and the fanatical leaders of Otzma Yehudit is to suggest that mainstream Israeli politicians don’t represent the very chauvinistic, racist and violent ideals that the extremist party has championed since its formation in 2012.
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Otzma Yehudit was resurrected by the followers of Brooklyn-born Rabbi Meir Kahane, who has advocated the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and has led his followers in many violent incursions against Palestinian Arab communities, in Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territories.
His ch party, banned in Israel four years after its formation in 1984, was even then not rejected for its “racist policies” as many in the media are now suggesting. The party operated outside the confines of the Israeli government agenda, thus it was forced out, but its violent ideas persisted in the Knesset until this day. If racism against Palestinians was truly a Kach-championed political anomaly, how is one to explain the racist Nation-State law, which defines Israel as a “the nation-state of the Jewish people” – elevating everything Jewish and degrading everything Palestinian? The law is hardly different from Otzma Yehudit’s own constitution, which defines Israel as a “Jewish state in its character, its national symbols and its legal values”, also defining Hebrew as Israel’s “only official language”. In fact, a careful reading of the party’s constitution and the text of the Nation-State law reveals astounding similarities. This suggests that since the days of Meir Kahane, it is Israeli society that has drawn closer to the views of Jewish extremists, not the other way around. Indeed, Kahane was assassinated in 1990, but his ideas lived on, expanding along with Jewish settlements to finally capture mainstream imagination. |
The outrage against the Netanyahu-Otzma Yehudit alliance is likely motivated by a slight degree of fear that the ugly face of Zionism has been fully exposed to the world.
As for AIPAC, it is clear that no amount of carefully-worded diplomatic language will suffice to explain why the Israeli government is to be populated by members of a party that has been listed as a terrorist organization by the US State Department since 1994.
Netanyahu is desperate, and, as history has taught us, when the Israeli Prime Minister is in a political jam, he would stoop to any level to free himself. In the last general elections in 2015, Netanyahu made a final appeal to his supporters. “Arab voters are heading to the polling stations in droves,” he said, resorting to his typical style of fear-mongering. Unsurprisingly, he won.
Netanyahu is more desperate now than ever. His opponents in the Center are merging their parties in a new list, Kahol Lavan or “Blue and White”, which has the potential to unseat him on April 9.
Worse, the Israeli attorney general has resolved on February 28 to indict Netanyahu for “bribery and fraud”. A poll published the following day found that two-thirds of Israelis think that Netanyahu should resign if indicted.
Netanyahu’s own opportunistic legacy is more than enough to explain his decision to reach out to Otzma Yehudit, but what is truly mind-boggling is the outrage at a political move that seems perfectly fit for Israel’s mainstream politics.
Even if Israel’s Central Election Committee resolves to bar Otzma Yehudit from participating in the upcoming elections, little will change in terms of the values and ideals the party stands for, principles that, in one way or another, also define Jewish Home, the New Right, the Likud and others.
Otzma Yehudit’s platform calls for a war against the “enemies of Israel” that must “be total, without negotiations, without concessions and without compromises”.
But isn’t this essentially the same view of Ayelet Shaked, Minister of Justice in Netanyahu's coalition, and now one of the leaders of the newly formed “New Right” party?
In 2014, just before Israel unleashed its most destructive war on the besieged Gaza Strip, Shaked declared the need for a total war. “Not an operation, not a slow-moving one, not low-intensity, not controlled escalation … This is a war … This is a war between two people. Who is the enemy? The Palestinian people …”
More than 2,139 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed in the Israeli war that followed her declaration, and over 11,000 were wounded.
Why the outrage, then, when the fringe party’s mission to “restore the sovereignty and ownership over the Temple Mount” – meaning, Al-Aqsa Mosque – is consistent with the views of most Israelis, religious and secular alike? Knesset members have made that call repeatedly, often from Al-Aqsa itself, while surrounded by scores of soldiers and armed Jewish settlers.
As for the confiscation of Palestinian land and the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements, as Otzma Yehudit advocates, that, too, is a common ideal that most Israeli political groups, spanning the Right and Left, brazenly champion.
AIPAC is not only being hypocritical to suggest that Otzma Yehudit violates the “core values that are the very foundation of the State of Israel”, it is being purposely deceptive as well.
In fact, Otzma Yehudit’s platform only reinforces the existing “core values” of Israel, the same values that AIPAC itself champions without the slightest regard for human rights, international law and the principles of true democratic values.
As for AIPAC, it is clear that no amount of carefully-worded diplomatic language will suffice to explain why the Israeli government is to be populated by members of a party that has been listed as a terrorist organization by the US State Department since 1994.
Netanyahu is desperate, and, as history has taught us, when the Israeli Prime Minister is in a political jam, he would stoop to any level to free himself. In the last general elections in 2015, Netanyahu made a final appeal to his supporters. “Arab voters are heading to the polling stations in droves,” he said, resorting to his typical style of fear-mongering. Unsurprisingly, he won.
Netanyahu is more desperate now than ever. His opponents in the Center are merging their parties in a new list, Kahol Lavan or “Blue and White”, which has the potential to unseat him on April 9.
Worse, the Israeli attorney general has resolved on February 28 to indict Netanyahu for “bribery and fraud”. A poll published the following day found that two-thirds of Israelis think that Netanyahu should resign if indicted.
Netanyahu’s own opportunistic legacy is more than enough to explain his decision to reach out to Otzma Yehudit, but what is truly mind-boggling is the outrage at a political move that seems perfectly fit for Israel’s mainstream politics.
Even if Israel’s Central Election Committee resolves to bar Otzma Yehudit from participating in the upcoming elections, little will change in terms of the values and ideals the party stands for, principles that, in one way or another, also define Jewish Home, the New Right, the Likud and others.
Otzma Yehudit’s platform calls for a war against the “enemies of Israel” that must “be total, without negotiations, without concessions and without compromises”.
But isn’t this essentially the same view of Ayelet Shaked, Minister of Justice in Netanyahu's coalition, and now one of the leaders of the newly formed “New Right” party?
In 2014, just before Israel unleashed its most destructive war on the besieged Gaza Strip, Shaked declared the need for a total war. “Not an operation, not a slow-moving one, not low-intensity, not controlled escalation … This is a war … This is a war between two people. Who is the enemy? The Palestinian people …”
More than 2,139 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed in the Israeli war that followed her declaration, and over 11,000 were wounded.
Why the outrage, then, when the fringe party’s mission to “restore the sovereignty and ownership over the Temple Mount” – meaning, Al-Aqsa Mosque – is consistent with the views of most Israelis, religious and secular alike? Knesset members have made that call repeatedly, often from Al-Aqsa itself, while surrounded by scores of soldiers and armed Jewish settlers.
As for the confiscation of Palestinian land and the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements, as Otzma Yehudit advocates, that, too, is a common ideal that most Israeli political groups, spanning the Right and Left, brazenly champion.
AIPAC is not only being hypocritical to suggest that Otzma Yehudit violates the “core values that are the very foundation of the State of Israel”, it is being purposely deceptive as well.
In fact, Otzma Yehudit’s platform only reinforces the existing “core values” of Israel, the same values that AIPAC itself champions without the slightest regard for human rights, international law and the principles of true democratic values.
28 mar 2019
The Otzma Yehudit Party, including (L-R): Itamar Ben-Gvir, Michael Ben-Ari, Benzi Gopstein and Baruc
Publication by Central Elections Committee of agreements between parties running together in the April elections shows that Jewish Home-National Union will seek to place either Itamar Ben-Gvir or Michael Ben-Ari as opposition member of panel to pick judges, should they secure a Knesset seat.
Election maneuvering could see a member of the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) sit on the Judicial Selection Committee in the next Knesset. Jewish Home-National Union has agreed to place either Itamar Ben-Gvir or Michael Ben-Ari - if they are elected to the Knesset - as an opposition representative on the panel that selects the country's judges, according to information published on the Central Elections Committee website on Tuesday.
Central Elections Committee Chairman Hanan Meltzer, who also serves as deputy chief justice of the Supreme Court, instructed the panel to publish all agreements between parties running together in the upcoming elections on the committee' official website, following an appeal by attorney Shahar Ben-Meir.
Jewish Home-National Union and Otzma Yehudit have agreed to run togther in the April 9 elections, but that agreement will be ended immediately after Election Day, thereby allowing any MKs that the latter receives to join the opposition.
The Otzma Yehudit Party is the latest incarnation of the Jewish National Front, a party that was established ahead of the 2006 elections, but its roots are in the Kach movement, which Kahane established in the 1970s.
Otzma Yehudit will set up an independent election headquarters, with its campaign coordinated with joint Jewish Home-National Union's election headquarters.
In addition, intra-party agreements involving the ruling Likud party, Moshe Feiglin's Zehut party, Arab parties Balad, Hadash, Ra'am and Ta'al, the United Torah Judaism party, the Blue and White party (Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz's joint endeavor) were also published, with both Zehut and Otzma Yehudit opposing the move.
"Out of a sense of responsibility for the Jewish people, the State of Israel and the Torah, and in order not to lose right-wing votes, the joint Jewish Home-National Union party and the Otzma Yehudit party will run under a joint list in a technical bloc (which means the agreement between the two parties will be broken off immediately after Election Day) to maximize the votes of the public supporting the Torah, the people and the land," states the agreement Jewish Home-National Union and Otzma Yehudit.
Meanwhile, Likud and the right-wing national-religious Ahi party also agreed to run together, in order to fend off appeals against Ahi leader Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan securing the 28 spot on the Likud list. He too will split from Likud after the elections.
Publication by Central Elections Committee of agreements between parties running together in the April elections shows that Jewish Home-National Union will seek to place either Itamar Ben-Gvir or Michael Ben-Ari as opposition member of panel to pick judges, should they secure a Knesset seat.
Election maneuvering could see a member of the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) sit on the Judicial Selection Committee in the next Knesset. Jewish Home-National Union has agreed to place either Itamar Ben-Gvir or Michael Ben-Ari - if they are elected to the Knesset - as an opposition representative on the panel that selects the country's judges, according to information published on the Central Elections Committee website on Tuesday.
Central Elections Committee Chairman Hanan Meltzer, who also serves as deputy chief justice of the Supreme Court, instructed the panel to publish all agreements between parties running together in the upcoming elections on the committee' official website, following an appeal by attorney Shahar Ben-Meir.
Jewish Home-National Union and Otzma Yehudit have agreed to run togther in the April 9 elections, but that agreement will be ended immediately after Election Day, thereby allowing any MKs that the latter receives to join the opposition.
The Otzma Yehudit Party is the latest incarnation of the Jewish National Front, a party that was established ahead of the 2006 elections, but its roots are in the Kach movement, which Kahane established in the 1970s.
Otzma Yehudit will set up an independent election headquarters, with its campaign coordinated with joint Jewish Home-National Union's election headquarters.
In addition, intra-party agreements involving the ruling Likud party, Moshe Feiglin's Zehut party, Arab parties Balad, Hadash, Ra'am and Ta'al, the United Torah Judaism party, the Blue and White party (Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz's joint endeavor) were also published, with both Zehut and Otzma Yehudit opposing the move.
"Out of a sense of responsibility for the Jewish people, the State of Israel and the Torah, and in order not to lose right-wing votes, the joint Jewish Home-National Union party and the Otzma Yehudit party will run under a joint list in a technical bloc (which means the agreement between the two parties will be broken off immediately after Election Day) to maximize the votes of the public supporting the Torah, the people and the land," states the agreement Jewish Home-National Union and Otzma Yehudit.
Meanwhile, Likud and the right-wing national-religious Ahi party also agreed to run together, in order to fend off appeals against Ahi leader Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan securing the 28 spot on the Likud list. He too will split from Likud after the elections.
