A leadership election was held by the

Israeli Labor Party The Israeli Labor Party ( he, מִפְלֶגֶת הָעֲבוֹדָה הַיִּשְׂרְאֵלִית, ), commonly known as HaAvoda ( he, הָעֲבוֹדָה, , The Labor), is a social democratic and Zionist political party in Israel. The ...

party on 9 November 2005. Chairman of the

Histadrut Histadrut, or the General Organization of Workers in Israel, originally ( he, ההסתדרות הכללית של העובדים בארץ ישראל, ''HaHistadrut HaKlalit shel HaOvdim B'Eretz Yisrael''), is Israel's national trade union center ...

Trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (s ...

Amir Peretz defeated Deputy Prime Minister and incumbent leader of the party

Shimon Peres Shimon Peres (; he, שמעון פרס ; born Szymon Perski; 2 August 1923 – 28 September 2016) was an Israeli politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the ninth president of ...

Background

In 2001, special elections for the position of

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

took place after the resignation of

Ehud Barak Ehud Barak ( he-a, אֵהוּד בָּרָק, Ehud_barak.ogg, link=yes, born Ehud Brog; 12 February 1942) is an Israeli general and politician who served as the tenth prime minister from 1999 to 2001. He was leader of the Labor Party until Ja ...

. Barak, then the leader of the Labor party, lost to

Ariel Sharon Ariel Sharon (; ; ; also known by his diminutive Arik, , born Ariel Scheinermann, ; 26 February 1928 – 11 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006. S ...

, and subsequently retired from political life. he was replaced by

Binyamin Ben-Eliezer Binyamin "Fuad" Ben-Eliezer (, he, בנימין "פואד" בן אליעזר; 12 February 1936 – 28 August 2016) was an Iraqi-born Israeli politician and general. He served as a member of the Knesset between 1984 and 2014, and held several min ...

, who was subsequently defeated by

Amram Mitzna Amram Mitzna ( he, עמרם מצנע, born 20 February 1945) is an Israeli politician and former general in the IDF. He is a former mayor of Haifa (1993–2003) and Yeruham (2005–2010) and led the Labor Party from 2002 to 2003. In 2012 he joi ...

in 2002. Mitzna resigned the next year due to the party's poor performance in the

2003 election The following elections occurred in the year 2003. Africa * 2003 Beninese parliamentary election * 2003 Djiboutian parliamentary election * 2003 Guinean presidential election * 2003 Mauritanian presidential election * 2003 Nigerian parliamentary ...

. as a result of Mitzna's resignation, the decision was made to appoint party veteran

as interim leader in June 2003, with the intent that he would serve for one year. In July 2003, members of the Labor Party began talks regarding precise primary dates.

and his allies wanted to establish a committee to prepare for internal elections, to be held in June 2004, which the party's internal buerau rejected. In September, Peres began negotiations with the One Nation party, led by Amir Peretz, with the hopes of fielding a joint list in the next election. in November, several members of the party, including Dalia Itzik and Avraham Burg, proposed the extension of Peres's term by at least one year. Ben-Eliezer initially opposed both motions, and accused Peres of selling out the party, but reached an agreement with Peres to lengthen his term by a year in February 2004. Labor reached an agreement with One Nation in May 2004, despite Ben-Eliezer's opposition. the two parties later merged in 2005. In December 2004, the party's central committee scheduled the upcoming primary for June 2005. Peretz announced his intention to run on 12 June. the following month, Labor joined the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government ...

of Ariel Sharon. with Peres becoming the Vice Prime Minister. on 26 June 2005, two days before the scheduled primary date, the primary was delayed following the discovery of potential fraud in a recently-conducted party census. following the postponement, Barak dropped out of the race and endorsed Peres on 11 September. Member of the Knesset Matan Vilnai announced his intention to run on 10 October. on 16 October, the Central Committee set the primary date on 9 November. Vilnai dropped out of the race on 6 November after Peres promised to appoint him

Minister of Defense A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in so ...

in a labor-led government.

Campaign

Peretz campaigned on a desire to return labor to its

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

roots, opposing free market reforms and budgetary cuts which he argued hurt Israel's poor. In addition, he campaigned for his party's withdrawal from the

at the time. Peres campaigned on his political experience, portraying himself as a calm and civil candidate. Before dropping out on 11 September, Barak campaigned against the government of the time. He argued that it was incapable of protecting citizens and vowed to back law enforcement if elected. Barak received endorsements from former leader

, members of the Knesset

Avraham Shochat Avraham Shochat ( he, אברהם שוחט, born 14 June 1936) is an Israeli former politician who twice served as Minister of Finance. He served as mayor of Arad for 20 years. Biography Avraham ("Beiga") Shochat was born in Tel Aviv during the ...

and Danny Yatom, and Minister of Environmental Protection Shalom Simhon.

Candidates

- former

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

, incumbent leader of the Labor Party, Vice Prime Minister. * Amir Peretz - chairman of the

Member of the Knesset Lists of Knesset members cover members of the Knesset of Israel. They are organized by session, by ethnicity and by position. By session * List of members of the first Knesset (1949–51) * List of members of the second Knesset (1951–55) * Lis ...

, former leader of the One Nation party. *

- Minister of National Infrastructure, former

, former leader of the Labor Party.

Withdrawn

* Matan Vilnai -

. *

- former

Results

Aftermath

Peres initially claimed that widespread fraud might have taken place during the primary but met with Peretz and conceded on 11 November. he left the labor party on 30 November to join the newly-formed

Kadima Kadima ( he, קדימה, lit=''Forward'') was a centrist and liberal political party in Israel. It was established on 24 November 2005 by moderates from Likud largely following the implementation of Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement p ...

party, and was elected

President of Israel The president of the State of Israel ( he, נְשִׂיא מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, Nesi Medinat Yisra'el, or he, נְשִׂיא הַמְדִינָה, Nesi HaMedina, President of the State) is the head of state of Israel. The posi ...

in 2007. Peretz and the Labor party went on to contest the

2006 election The following elections occurred in the year 2006. * Elections in 2006 * Electoral calendar 2006 * 2006 Acehnese regional election * 2006 American Samoan legislative election * 2006 Bahraini parliamentary election * 2006 Costa Rican presidential ...

, in which they came in second and won 19 seats, achieving no net change in seats. Peretz was later defeated for re-election as leader of the Labor Party in 2007 by Ehud Barak.{{Cite news , title=פרץ בירך את ברק והבטיח לשתף עמו פעולה: "לא אעשה לך את מה שעשו לי" , work=TheMarker , url=https://www.themarker.com/markets/1.446938 , access-date=2022-05-08

References

Labor Party leadership election Israeli Labor Party leadership elections Israeli Labor Party leadership election Israeli Labor Party leadership election