- Title: Outsider Gabbai wins Israeli Labour Party leadership contest
- Date: 10th July 2017
- Summary: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (JULY 10, 2017) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** EXTERIOR OF LABOUR PARTY HEADQUARTERS PEOPLE WALKING PAST BANNERS OF AVI GABBAI BANNERS OF GABBAI BANNER OF PERETZ PARTY OFFICIAL ANNOUNCING GABBAI WON LABOUR LEADERSHIP VOTE VARIOUS OF SUPPORTERS DANCING AND CHANTING GABBAI ARRIVING AS SUPPORTERS CHANTING, GETTING ON STAGE GABBAI ADDRESSING CROWD (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) NEWLY-ELECTED LABOUR LEADER AVI GABBAI, SAYING: "(Israel) needs a leadership that is capable of taking significant decisions for the good of everybody, that looks after Dimona (the working classes in the periphery) and not just after Amona (West Bank settlements)." CROWD APPLAUDING CAMERAMEN
- Embargoed: 24th July 2017 23:03
- Keywords: Israel Labour Party leadrship vote Avi Gabbai victory speech
- Location: JERUSALEM/ SDEROT AND TEL AVIV, ISRAEL
- City: JERUSALEM/ SDEROT AND TEL AVIV, ISRAEL
- Country: Israel
- Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA0026P4V4G7
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Outsider Avi Gabbai was elected chairman of Israel's opposition Labour party on Monday (July 10) by beating veteran Amir Peretz, a former defence minister and labour union chief, in a leadership runoff.
Gabbai, 50, a relative newcomer to Israeli politics, last year defected to centre-left Labour from the centre-right Kulanu party, which is part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition government.
Labour and a smaller party headed by Tzipi Livni, a past foreign minister, have formed the Zionist Union, the largest opposition faction in the 120-seat Knesset with 24 seats.
Although not a lawmaker, Gabbai served as environment minister in Netanyahu's government. He quit in 2016 in protest at the sacking of defence minister Moshe Yaalon to make way for Avigdor Lieberman from a rightist coalition partner.
Jerusalem-born Gabbai, the son of immigrants from Morocco, garnered 52.4 percent of the Labour membership vote. He does not have a seat in the current parliament and so in his victory speech he asked Isaac Herzog to stay on as opposition leader for the time being. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
