Miriam Peretz claims her son, a Yashar MK, will resign from Knesset if Eisenkot forms coalition with Arab parties

Miriam Peretz, an Israel Prize-winning educator and the mother of Yashar MK Elyasaf Peretz, claims that her son will resign from the Knesset if Yashar chair Gadi Eisenkot moves to include the Arab-led Ra’am or Joint List in his government.

Peretz became a household name after her eldest son Uriel was killed fighting in Lebanon in 1998, followed by his younger brother Eliraz’s death in 2010. Both served in the elite Sayeret Golani unit.

Elyasaf, the fifth of Peretz’s six children, is a first-time lawmaker, having been elected to the Knesset in the 20th spot on the Yashar slate.

Speaking to the Haredi Radio Kol Chai, Peretz says that “if his party sits with an Arab party, he has said he will resign from the Knesset.”

She claims that her son has been facing “pressure” from unspecified sources since he joined Yashar, and that it has increased in recent days “to ensure he doesn’t vote for a government that relies on the support of Arab parties.”

Acknowledging that these are her own opinions and that she isn’t speaking for her lawmaker son, Peretz tells the radio station that she doesn’t take issue with Eisenkot cooperating with the Arab parties, but with the possibility that he will give them a place in a governing coalition.

“I am talking about sitting in government alongside an Arab party that will decide for me whether to defend our home, whether to go to battle, and whether to give IDF soldiers what they deserve,” she says. “It will not happen.”