Shaffir Quits, Vows to Return

Stav Shaffir has, for the time being at least, terminated her zig-zag political career, announcing on Wednesday that she has decided not to run for the Knesset on March 2.

The left-wing Shaffir, 40, formerly of the recently-created Democratic Union, said that she had changed her mind about plans to run at the head of the Green Party, out of concern that it would split votes and diminish the overall representation of the left in the Knesset.

After working as a journalist and then catapulting to fame as an organizer of the 2011 cost-of-living protests, in 2013 she joined the Labor party, where she rose to a senior position. Ahead of the previous election, she bolted in order to form the Democratic Camp with former prime minister Ehud Barak and Meretz chairman Nitzan Horowitz.

In recent days, Shaffir again departed, over a dispute over her place on the electoral list: She wanted to run again in the No. 2 spot, but Meretz objected that her vote-getting performance did not justify it, and she was omitted from the combined Meretz-Labor slate.

At a press conference in Tel Aviv, she promised her supporters that she hasn’t abandoned the Green Party.

“I won’t run in this election, but I will stay in the race for our country. Today we’re taking the Green Movement out [of the Knesset] and instead to the streets, to the cities, to the neighborhoods, in order to build our tomorrow and come back stronger.”