Majadele: Arabs likely to quit Labor if Barak remains leader

Science, Culture and Sport Minister Raleb Majadele warned on Tuesday that Israeli Arabs were likely to leave Labor if Ehud Barak stayed on as party chairman.

Majadele, the country's first Israeli Arab minister, said his own position and that of his community in Labor was clear.

"First of all, Barak needs to announce in an unambiguous fashion that the Labor party will sit in the opposition in every situation, and secondly, that he will reach conclusions in the face of the harsh defeat in the elections and resign from his post as party chairman," Majadele told Arabic language Nazareth radio station A-Shams.

The minister's comments came after Barak was heavily criticized by Israeli Arabs for his role in Israel's devastating offensive against Hamas in Gaza last month, which he commanded as defense minister.

Even though the operation actually boosted Barak's popularity among the Israeli population as a whole, Labor only received 13 seats in last week's election, after holding 19 in the previous Knesset.

	Science, Culture and Sport Minister Raleb Majadele
	Photo by: Nir Kafri