Amir Peretz stepping down as Labor leader ahead of elections
With party not expected to win enough votes to enter next Knesset, economy minister says it is time for new leadership; MK Merav Michaeli demands members choose his replacement, saying Peretz has no right to bequeath it to anyone
Moran Azulay |
Published: 12.23.20 , 18:54
Economy Minister Amir Peretz announced Wednesday that he is stepping down as Labor Party leader, after recent polls predicted the party will not pass the threshold to win any Knesset seats in the upcoming elections.
Peretz’s announcement comes as Israel heads into its fourth elections in two years, triggered when the Knesset failed to approve a state budget by midnight Tuesday and the automatically dissolved.
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Dec. 13, 2020
Economy Minister Amir Peretz announced over the weekend that he would move ahead on a bill to establish of national work accidents prevention authority, six years after a public committee first recommended it.
Between 54 and 61 people are killed every year on average in work accidents in Israel. In 2014, the committee noted the numerous bodies dealing with these accidents and the lack of coordination among them, and concluded: “There is no policy in the realm of work safety and no priorities have been set. Each body promotes its own concepts and acts according to its own narrow interests.” Then-State Comptroller Joseph Shapira criticized the delay in establishing the authority in his reports in 2016 and 2018, calling it “inconceivable, serious and unreasonable.”
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Dec. 11, 2020
This week the government approved the opening of all the shopping malls everywhere in Israel. This happened in the wake of pressure from Finance Minister Yisrael Katz, Economy Minister Amir Peretz and the lobbyists for the malls and the chain stores. “Opening the shopping malls, along with the markets, is bringing about 200,000 workers, women and men, back to their jobs,” said Peretz, lauding the move.
In this reality, it is hard not to think about the approximately 200,000 workers in the fields of entertainment and events who have been sitting at home for nine months now, waiting for a clear plan and attention from the government. Culture Minister Chili Tropper promised he would “take care that at every stage of reopening, something from the world of culture will open.” And indeed, along with the shopping mall pilot, seven out of the approximately 220 museums and galleries in the country are active again. Now that all the shopping malls have opened, i