Likud cries foul over Kadima affirmative action rules

Likud officials yesterday accused Kadima of "racism" against Western immigrants after the rival party announced that only candidates born in the former Soviet Union can contest slots reserved for immigrants in the December 24 primary.

In a response Kadima called the issue "irrelevant," since there are no potential candidates from other countries seeking these spots.

Likud and Labor also employ a slot-reservation system to ensure that the party's list for the general election includes women, immigrants and members of various minority groups. But while the Labor and Likud immigrant slots are open to anyone who came to Israel after 1988 and 1984, respectively, Kadima restricts those slots for immigrants from the former Soviet Union who arrived 1977.

"The only way to describe it is racism," said Likud spokeswoman Dina Libster. "Obviously, what drove Kadima to do this is an unchecked desire to curry favors with the Russian-speaking electorate." She noted that in Likud's primary, held Tuesday, the two immigrant slots went to a Russian-born and an Ethiopian-born candidate.

One of the four U.S.-born candidates was was Yechiel Leiter, Netanyahu's former chief of staff when he served as finance ministry, who clinched spot 39. "Calling Kadima's decision 'racist' is going a bit too far," he told Anglo File. "It's just an unwise political move which is offensive to other immigrant groups. Of course their intention was to ingratiate themselves to the Russian-speaking public, Israel's single largest immigrant group."

Kadima's chief spokesman, Shmulik Dahan, said: "Immigrant candidates come forth and the party helps them by reserving slots for them. But we have no Anglo candidates."