Rivlin decision murky after Balad revokes recommendation for Gantz

President Reuven Rivlin’s legal advisers plan to investigate whether Balad, one of the parties making up the Joint List, can revoke its MKs’ recommendation of Blue and White leader Benny Gantz as prime minister.

The Joint List recommended Gantz – the first candidate it supported since Yitzhak Rabin in 1992 – in the name of all 13 MKs on Sunday evening.

Soon after, Balad released a statement that it does not support the recommendation, but Joint List leader Ayman Odeh said the recommendation is still in the name of all 13 MKs.

Later, Joint List faction chairman Ahmed Tibi sent Rivlin a letter taking back Balad’s recommendations.

“I would like to notify your honor,” Tibi wrote to President Reuven Rivlin, “that three MKs from Balad asked me… to notify [you] that the Joint List’s recommendation today of Benny Gantz does not include them, and therefore the recommendation is by 10 MKs of Hadash, UAL and Ta’al, and not 13.”

Beit Hanassi said they plan to examine “whether there is legal standing to MK Tibi’s message that the Joint List’s recommendation for Benny Gantz to form the government does not include the three Balad MKs or that the count is up to the president’s judgment.”

The Joint List’s announcement once again brought Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the lead, with 55 recommendations to Gantz’s 54.

The remaining Knesset seats belong to Yisrael Beytenu, which chose to recommend no one, because neither candidate committed to forming a Likud-Blue and White-Yisrael Beytenu coalition.

Balad is the most extreme of the Joint List’s parties. Its founder, Azmi Bishara, is a fugitive from the law living in Qatar after he was suspected of telling Hezbollah where its missiles landed in the Second Lebanon War. Former Balad MK Haneen Zoabi took part in the Gaza flotilla on the Mavi Marmara ship, where her fellow passengers clashed with IDF commandos. Ex-Balad MK Basel Ghattas went to prison for smuggling cell phones to terrorists in prison.

While the Joint List debated whether to recommend Gantz or not, Tibi and Joint List leader Ayman Odeh said the decision would be for the entire 13-seat faction.

However, the party’s leader, Mtanes Shehadeh, told KAN Bet on Monday morning: “We always said we won’t support recommending Gantz… They don’t have Balad’s support… We are four partner parties. No one can force the other on matters of principle.”

Shehadeh said Tibi sent the letter because Beit Hanassi asked for a clarification after Balad told the press it does not support a Gantz recommendation.

“We don’t see Gantz as different from Netanyahu,” he said. “It’s not about the person, it’s the principle. We don’t see him wanting to change priorities.”