District court rejects Netanyahu-backed Likud appeal, upholds ban on sitting MKs running for district slots

By Sam Sokol 10 August 2026, 4:32 pm

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

The Tel Aviv District Court rejects a petition by Likud MK Afef Abed — backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — to strike down a ruling by the party’s internal tribunal that canceled a Likud Central Committee vote to allow sitting and former Knesset members, ministers and deputy ministers to compete for slots reserved for regional districts in the upcoming August 17 primaries.

Likud says it will appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, Hebrew media reports.

For decades, Likud’s reserved spots for districts have only been available for new MKs, acting as a diversifying tool that gives a chance for new figures to make it into the Knesset.

But following public opinion polls that consistently show Likud getting around 22-24 seats in the October 27 election, significantly down from its current 32, Netanyahu heavily campaigned for the Likud Central Committee to approve a change that would let current and former lawmakers, ministers and deputy ministers vie for those spots.

Late last month, Likud’s roughly 4,500-member Central Committee approved the proposal by a majority of only five votes, immediately prompting petitions to the party’s internal tribunal, including by MKs Eliyahu Revivo and David Bitan.

“MKs competing for the district [spots] contradicts the [Likud] constitution since it harms the value of equality,” Likud court chief Michael Kleiner wrote in his ruling last week, adding that the district slots “have always been a protected space that has enabled new leadership to sprout in fair conditions… and that started the careers of most [current] Likud ministers.”