The legal saga that rocked the Likud came to an end tonight.MK Afif Abed has withdrawn his appeal to the Supreme Court against the decision of the Likud court, which prevented Knesset members, ministers, and deputy ministers from running for the party in the district seats in the primaries - which will be held this coming Monday.
Following the withdrawal of the appeal, Knesset members and ministers are in 'trouble': They will not be able to try to secure their place on the Likud list by running in the district seats - which will leave quite a few of them outside the Knesset.
The decision is expected to mainly affect incumbent Knesset members who registered for the primaries in the districts, including Osher Shekalim, Eti Atiya, Eliyahu Ravivo, Shalom Danino, Afif Abed, Nissim Vaturi and Kati Sheetrit.
The section that sparked intense controversy
The struggle began following a change that the Likud sought to promote ahead of the primary elections: On July 27, the Likud Central Committee approved a series of changes to the rules of the primaries. Along with eight reservations given to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a reduction in the number of districts from ten to seven, a clause was also approved that allowed ministers and incumbent Knesset members to run in the district slots.
However, this section, which sparked intense controversy, passed by an extremely narrow margin of only 5 votes. Following petitions filed with the Likud court, the decision allowing Knesset members to run in districts was invalidated.
Because the invalidation of the section was particularly significant for Afif Abed, who planned to run in the Galilee and Valleys district, he appealed to the District Court in an attempt to overturn the decision - but the attempt, as mentioned, was successful.
The approval initially given to incumbent Knesset members and ministers to run in the districts sparked opposition from new candidates. As the entry of well-known elected officials into the district arena could have placed the rookies against candidates who already enjoyed public exposure, political experience, and a field apparatus.
With the appeal withdrawn, this concern is removed from the current primaries.
The social forum that operates alongside the National Federation celebrated: "This is a victory for common sense. Throughout this whole thing, we have appealed to the Likud leadership to allow new and young forces to compete and thus preserve the future of the movement. We are happy that the court accepted our petition, thus creating a situation in which the party remains with its functionaries. The social forum that operates alongside the National Federation will continue to be the umbrella organization for 150,000 Likud functionaries.".
""Why do we need the Supreme Court?""
MK Afif Abed withdrew the appeal, after Judge Dafna Barak-Erez indicated at the beginning of the hearing that the court preferred that the dispute be resolved within the Likud.
""Why do we need the Supreme Court?" asked Barak-Erez. "We brought the hearing forward from the legal point of view because we understood that there was a conflict. We will not complain if you resolve this among yourselves. I ask that you try to reach agreements.".
Judge Ofer Grosskopf joined the position and raised questions about the court's intervention in the party's decision. "The district court decided not to intervene in the Likud court's decision, why would we intervene where the district court did not think there was a problem with the court's decision?""
