Last update - 00:00 11/01/2007
Former MK Masalha withdraws support for Peretz
By Mazal Mualem, Haaretz Correspondent
Former Labor MK Nawaf Masalha on Thursday withdrew his support of Labor Chairman Amir Peretz in the party primaries, one day after the Peretz appointed MK Raleb Majadele, a rival of Masalha, as minister of science and technology.
The former lawmaker met Thursday with MK Ami Ayalon, a candidate for Labor chairman, at a Tel Aviv café, and told him he would consider whether to offer his support.
Masalha told Haaretz he also met with MK Ophir Pines-Paz and would meet with former prime minister Ehud Barak, and that he would then decide whom to support, but that "it will not be Peretz."
Masalha said the meeting with Ayalon had been set ten days earlier.
According to him, the appointment of Majadele as minister "will not help Peretz in the Arab sector." Masalha is among the veteran members of the Labor party, and wields considerable influence within it.
The appointment may also cost Peretz the support of the Druze leadership. Druze leader Shakib Shanan, number 20 on the party list, had reportedly expected the appointment himself.
Masalha told Haaretz he "welcomes the appointment of the first Arab minister, but this deal is imaginary. Both Amir [Peretz] and I know why he did this at this time."
According to him, Peretz did not need to make the appointment in the manner he did, as "Peretz knows Raleb [Majadele] is my rival."
"The appointment will not help Peretz in the Arab sector...This wasn't done for altruistic reasons. I never asked him to be minister - I supported him - but they [Labor leadership] should have chosen someone else," he added.
Polls show Peretz at the fourth and final place in the Labor race. Registration for primary elections will be held until January 30.
Masalha has been a close associate of Peretz since both were prominent members of Labor's left-wing bloc in the mid-1980s.
He supported the Labor chairman in the previous primaries, but nonetheless lost his position in the party to Majadele.
Majadele, a resident of Baka al-Garbiya and chairman of the Knesset's Committee of the Interior, was among the leaders of the opposition to the participation of Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman in the government.
At the time, he called for Labor to leave the government, but on Wednesday took a different tone.
"The first Muslim Arab minister will represent over a million Arabs. This is an achievement for equality and internal peace in Israel," he said.