Miri Regev announces race for PM: stop voting for ‘white people’

Likud MK Miri Regev announced on Friday that she intends to put herself forward for the presidency and premiership of her party after the current Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu steps down.

“The time has come to have a Sephardi prime minister,” said Regev. “I think the Likud rank and file should vote this time for someone who represents their class, their ethnicity and their agenda.

“Seferdi Likudnik voted for years to lead the ‘white people.’ I think the day after Bibi Netanyahu, Likudniks will have to do some self-discovery.”

Regev insisted that he did not intend to run against Netanyahu, for which he only praised.

Regev joins other Likud MKs who have announced that they intend to seek leadership of the party in the post-Netanyahu era, including Nir Barkat, Yuli Edelstein, Israel Katz, Avi Ditcher and Tzachi Hanegby.

He criticized Amir Barkat, saying, “Money cannot buy everything.”

He praised former US President Barack Obama because he is African American. She compared Sephardim to African Americans, saying they had labored for Ashkenazim over the years.

“When Obama was elected, I sat in front of the television for an hour and cried,” she said. “When I saw movies and read books on slavery of blacks and had black women sitting in the back of the bus, I felt sad, because where I come from, I care about justice.”

Regev called the government of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid “an Ashkenazi elitist bond and said that Bennett was not their prime minister. He called the country a “deep state”.

While Regev said she was committed to Likud, she warned that she could form a new party if she was not elected.

“If Likudniks continue to elect leaders with ‘white’ DNA, a new Likud will arise,” she warned. “There will be a real Sephardi Likud that will convey Sephardi’s voice that’s been quiet for years.”

Culture Minister Miri Regev, Prime Minister Netanyahu and MK David Bitton in the Knesset in November (Credit: Mark Israel Salem)

Several leading Likud MKs attacked Regev for his comments.

Number two on the Likud list, Edelstein said in an interview to Channel 20, “We don’t choose parties based on ethnicity, region, religion, caste or gender. I don’t think Likud has started investigating people’s identity cards.” Will do. I don’t know why he said that.”

He said that based on Likud’s most recent primary elections, the party’s DNA has been made from all regions and groups.

Barkat, the former mayor of Jerusalem and seventh on the Likud list, said in an interview with N12 on Friday afternoon:[Regev’s comments] are divisive and have no place in the movement.”

“We are a movement of the people and, thank God, we have all – secular, religious and traditional, Jewish and non-Jewish. We have all the diversity and we bring our leaders with us from their vision and home. Choose based on ideals.”

“If we want to take control of the government again, we need to come together,” he said.

Galit Distal Atbarian said in a softer tone that, while she respects Regev and may even support her bid, she will not vote on ethnic lines.

“I recently spoke at the Knesset Plenum about how not one or two, but about 70 Israeli judges come from non-European backgrounds,” she told Ynet in an interview.

“This is an example of something that interests me, because it shows a broader trend and says something about the concentration of power, academic abilities and social mobility. But to say that I would choose a prime minister because She is a woman and of Middle Eastern origin?”

After the criticism, Regev told Channel 13: “Maybe I should have used a different expression” instead of white people, but he reinforced his other statements.