In efforts to revitalize their party ahead of the September national election, Labor members on Tuesday elected veteran lawmaker Amir Peretz as their new leader.
Peretz, a former defense minister who has also previously served as party leader, took just shy of half the votes (47%) in the party primaries, beating MKs Itzik Shmuli and Stav Shaffir, who evenly split the remainder.
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Shaffir congratulated her rival on his win, vowing that now the real battle can begin: "From tomorrow morning we are returning to the true struggle against the Right and replacing [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's corrupt reign."
As polls closed shortly after 10 p.m. the voter turnout rate stood at 45.6%, despite a last-minute push to keep the voting stations open longer amid countrywide protests over police brutality that led to mass traffic jams.
Peretz decided to postpone his victory celebrations due to protests across the country over the fatal shooting of Ethiopian Israeli teen Solomon Tekah by an off-duty police officer on Sunday.
"I've decided not to hold my victory celebration in light of the deep rift [in Israeli society] that is being intensified in front of our very eyes and the protest of the Ethiopian community. This outburst expresses the sense of discrimination they have been carrying for many years. Tomorrow we'll do everything that is required to reunite the party and make it a political home for all Israelis," Peretz said.
At one point Israel's most powerful political force, Labor in recent years has been devastated by internal division, poor voter turnout and a rightward shift among Israeli voters.
Former party leader Avi Gabbay resigned last month after April's general election saw the party sink to a historic low of just six seats in the 120-seat Knesset.
Both Shmuli and Shaffir entered the Knesset in 2013 after leading a social protest movement across the country, and have campaigned on their youth in an appeal to voters looking to turn the party in a new direction.
Peretz, who led Labor from 2005 to 2007, has painted himself as an experienced politician who possesses the clout needed to return the party to national prominence.
He is expected to begin as early as Wednesday to engage in talks with former Prime Minister Ehud Barak's new party and Meretz, in an effort to form a center-left bloc to contend in the upcoming snap election on September 17.
