Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party announced on Thursday that firebrand MK Tally Gotliv would run with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party in the October 27 election.
The announcement came after Gotliv’s disappointing result in last month’s Likud primary, which she has blamed on Netanyahu and said could put her “in Shin Bet detention facilities” if she is voted out and loses parliamentary immunity.
Under an agreement between the Likud and Otzma Yehudit, Gotliv will be bound by Likud faction discipline until the election and will not be declared a departing lawmaker.
Such a declaration would have barred Gotliv from running with any Knesset faction and deprived her of the roughly NIS 1.85 million ($614,700) in funding that parties get from the Knesset for every seat they control in parliament. It was unclear from Likud’s announcement if Gotliv’s funding would go to Otzma Yehudit or Likud.
Following the announcement, Ben Gvir welcomed Gotliv to Otzma Yehudit, saying she was “joining a family of fighters.”
