Netanyahu’s Likud Party holds primaries ahead of Israel’s general elections

Israel’s governing Likud Party will hold primaries to choose candidates for the country’s upcoming crunch general election.

Likud’s primaries are among the most heated and unruly events in the Israeli political calendar. The legislative election is also likely to be the most consequential for both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud Party, adding particular intrigue to Monday’s primaries.

The right-wing party broke the Labor-left monopoly on Israeli politics when Likud leader Menachem Begin became prime minister following the 1977 general election.

Likud has been credited with radically redrawing Israel’s political map and shifting the centre ground dramatically to the right.

Likud-led governments have waged major wars and military campaigns, including the invasion of Lebanon in 1982, the government’s violent response to the Palestinian second Intifada beginning in 2000, and the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

The party also broke with past government consensus on the issue of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank by defying international law and offering increasing support to violent settler groups.

At the same time, successive Likud governments have actively worked to halt any progress on the two- state solution agreed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the 1990s. Since Netanyahu began to dominate Israeli politics over the past two decades, there has been widespread opposition in Israel to this peace process.

Under Israel’s system of proportional representation, each party submits its list of candidates, ranging from its primary choice – such as the party leader – to the least likely to be elected.