Telem leader Moshe Ya'alon presented his party's slate for the 24th Knesset on Sunday, ahead of the March 23 elections.
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Telem and Yesh Atid were original members of Blue and White faction but broke with it when leader Benny Gantz decided to join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government. Ya'alon said announced Saturday that he would run separately from Yesh Atid in the next election.
In his opening remarks, Ya'alon said it was essential to offer Israeli voters a leadership alternative they could depend on. "That is the only chance for change. I am not afraid of anything. I stand determined in the face of any challenge," he stated.
Speaking out against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ya'alon said, "Israel is in a serious leadership crisis because the person at the head of our government has a serious conflict of interests with [those of] the State of Israel. In a time of the greatest economic crisis we have ever had known, he is preventing us from passing a state budget. He has also prevented and prevents the appointments of gatekeepers and senior officials in public service. As a criminal defendant, he has taken the State of Israel's agenda and all of our interests hostage, enslaved to his narrow interests. He is leading a path of division and incitement."
In a message to the premier, Ya'alon said, "We are here to say – enough is enough. Benjamin Netanyahu, your time is up."
Among those Ya'alon announced would run on Telem's list are Science and Technology Minister Yizhar Shai, epidemiologist and chairman of the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians Professor Hagai Levine, Telem MK Orly Fruman, attorney, former Shin Bet security agency coordinator and social activist and anti-Netanyahu protest organizer Gonen Ben Itzhak, attorney and Israel Advanced Technology Industries President Karin Mayer Rubinstein, Telem MK Andrey Kozhinov, and attorney Ayman Abu Raya.
Mere hours after announcing attorney Ayman Abu Raya as a candidate for his Telem party, however, Moshe Ya'alon was forced to disqualify him as a candidate following reports the attorney was under criminal investigation for allegedly offering senior Israel Land Authority officials tens of thousands of shekels in bribes in return for information on landowners entitled to compensation from the state. Abu Raya is alleged to have earned hundreds of thousands of shekels by representing the landowners. The investigation has been ongoing for two years, and Abu Raya has been summoned to a pre-hearing indictment.
This was not Abu Raya's first foray into politics. In 2019, he was one of the founders of the Arab Home party, which was to focus on improving conditions in Arab Israeli society. At the time, Abu Raya had said the party would be willing to enter a coalition government with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a tweet announcing Abu Raya's disqualification, Ya'alon wrote, "The values of Telem, chief among them setting a personal example, are what bind us together first and foremost. Practice what you preach."
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