Maverick Likud lawmaker thinks he can become mayor of Tel Aviv

MK Oren Hazan, until recently suspended by the Knesset Ethics Committee, claims internal polling and a new TV survey prove he’s strongest challenger to incumbent Ron Huldai

By Stuart Winer

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and ToI Staff 14 August 2018, 6:28 pm

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Controversial Likud MK Oren Hazan claimed Monday that an internal survey, coupled with a new TV poll, showed him as the person having the best chance of unseating Tel Aviv’s long-time mayor Ron Huldai in municipal elections later this year.

Hazan, who last month completed a six-month suspension ordered by the Knesset Ethics Committee for insulting MKs, has repeatedly indicated that he wants to run for mayor in the October elections, although he has not yet formally registered his candidacy.

A Channel 10 news survey published Monday evening did not include Hazan. It showed Huldai winning 45 percent of the vote, with Zionist Union MK Stav Shaffir next in line at 14%. Current Tel Aviv Deputy Mayor Asaf Zamir got 10%, comedian Assaf Harel 7%, and another of the city’s deputy mayors, Meital Lehavi, snagged just 1% of support from poll respondents.

“This is how the situation looks in Tel Aviv according to the news,” Hazan tweeted. “This is the time to note that in a survey arranged by Likud I got 18%, more than Stav and like both Assafs and Meital Lahavi together, and all this before I have made an announcement….”

“Friends, tens of thousands of Tel Aviv residents are waiting and expecting me to run,” Hazan continued. “And the way things look, it would lead to a second round between Huldai and me, and in the second round I will win.”

Hazan was apparently referring to a Likud party survey earlier this year that polled a theoretical contest between just Hazan and Huldai, who has been mayor of the city since 1989. The results gave Huldai 82% of the vote and Hazan 18%. It did not take into account any other candidates.

Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai speaks during a concert at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on May 14, 2018. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Last Tuesday Hazan tweeted an open plea to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to back his candidacy for mayor in order to prevent Shaffir from winning the post.

“Mr Prime Minister, I respect your request that I remain by your side in the Knesset but don’t abandon Tel Aviv,” he wrote. “I plead that you give me your blessing to run for mayor. I will not disappoint.”

In May Hadashot TV news reported that Hazan changed his address to the southern Tel Aviv neighborhood of Kfar Shalem ahead of a bid to become mayor.

At the time, the Likud party organized the survey to gain a picture of Hazan’s chances of success, the report said.

According to Likud rules, serving MKs must get permission from the party to run for a mayoral position, even if they were going to run on an independent ticket. Likud ultimately refused to grant Hazan permission, in part due to his poor showing in the survey, Hadashot said.

Hazan, who entered the Knesset in the 2015 election, has become known as the enfant terrible of Israel’s parliament.

Shortly after he went into politics, a Hadashot news expose alleged that Hazan had previously run a casino in Bulgaria where hard drugs and prostitution were allowed. He sued the station’s journalist Amit Segal for libel but the court rejected the bulk of the lawsuit.

Zionist Union MK Stav Shaffir in the Knesset, February 13, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

In December, he was charged with assaulting a senior official in the municipality of the West Bank town of Ariel in 2014 in an apparent dispute over a debt. After the city had frozen his bank account, Hazan went to the municipal office, where he allegedly cursed and pushed the municipal director.

In January, Hazan was slapped with a six-month ban on parliamentary activities by the Knesset Ethics Committee over a series of incidents in which he insulted his fellow lawmakers.

Though it was his longest, it was not his first time being banned from attending plenary and committee meetings.

Last year, he was suspended for a week due to his intimidating behavior against a Meretz MK in an on-air TV interview, in a stunt he said was coordinated with the hosting television channel.

In December 2015, the Ethics Committee also suspended Hazan from participating in parliamentary debates for a month due to a series of complaints against him. In February 2016, Hazan was again suspended from the committee hearings, this time by his own Likud party, after he skipped a plenum vote resulting in a loss for the party.