Green Movement party’s convention is due to decide Tuesday whether to run independently or accept an offer from another party to run a joint slate; one possibility: Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah party.
By Zafrir Rinat Dec.04, 2012

Prof. Alon Tal has been reelected head of the Green Movement after a stormy primary that included allegations of improprieties and attempts to employ vote contractors.

The party’s convention is due to decide Tuesday whether to run independently or accept an offer from another party to run a joint slate. One possibility is to hook up with Tzipi Livni’s new party Hatnuah.

Though Tal was elected with a clear majority, it’s still not clear who won the race to be his female counterpart: The party has both a chairman and a chairwoman.

The two contenders – incumbent Racheli Tidhar-Kenar and former city councilwoman Hadas Shachnai – were separated by only a few votes, and questions remain about the validity of some of the votes cast. The matter is expected to be resolved in the next few days.

Tal is an expert on environmental policy at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and a leading light in Israel’s environmental movement. He founded the Israel Union for Environmental Defense (Adam, Teva V’Din ) and is a former chairman of Life & Environment, an umbrella organization of green groups.

“Over the last few months we’ve seen the Green Movement expand, recruit thousands of new members and set up dozens of branches,” Tal said after the vote. “We’re presenting a list of experienced, talented people who are hungry for change; they come from civic organizations, from the field and from city councils. The Israeli public longs for an alternative to the existing destructive economic system. It wants thorough solutions, not the irresponsible slogans being tossed around by both right and left.”

But the party has suffered a tempestuous few weeks due to the primary fight generated by an influx of hundreds of new activists linked to Shachnai, whose support comes mainly from municipal green parties. The movement has also reaped new members from the Pirate Party, whose main goal is to introduce direct democracy – including by having MKs and city councillors poll party members electronically on how to vote on any given issue.

In the last election, the Green Movement ran a joint slate with the moderate religious party Meimad but didn’t receive enough votes to enter the Knesset.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/tal-retakes-helm-of-israel-s-green-movement-after-turbulent-primary.premium-1.482214#