MK Hazan Asks PM for Permission to Run for TA Mayor

Likud MK Oren Hazan, know for his flamboyant and often controversial comments, has decided to run for the office of mayor of Tel Aviv in the upcoming municipal elections. Hazan on Tuesday asked Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for his blessing to run.

Hazan’s main concern is to prevent Zionist Camp MK Stiv Shafir from taking the job, he wrote in a social media post. “Bad enough that some of the other leftist candidates would take the job, but allowing Shafir to take the job would harm not just Tel Aviv, but the entire country,” he wrote. “Mr. Prime Minister, I respect your request that I remain by your side in the Knesset, but please do not abandon Tel Aviv. I urge you to allow me to run for the office of mayor. I promise I will not disappoint you.”

Hazan announced in May his intention to run for the office in the municipal elections this fall. He officially registered as a Tel Aviv resident in May in order to participate in the elections. Shafir had already announced two weeks earlier that she planned to seek the post; both she and Hazan will be running against incumbent Ron Huldai, who announced that he would seek another term. “We cannot allow the radical left to take over a city like Tel Aviv,” Hazan said. “I intend to run as an alternative to Stiv Shafir. We cannot abandon such a successful city to the clutches of the left, to the administration of such irresponsible people,” he added.