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Calling for fresh blood and liberalism, MK Barbivai launches Tel Aviv mayor campaign
Yesh Atid lawmaker fronts party’s most prominent effort to establish deeper foothold in local authorities, vying with four others to challenge 25-year incumbent Ron Huldai
Carrie Keller-Lynn is a political and legal correspondent for The Times of Israel
Yesh Atid lawmaker Orna Barbivai launched her campaign for Tel Aviv mayor against five-term incumbent Ron Huldai on Wednesday evening, entering as his fifth challenger for the October 31 election.
Flanked by party lawmakers, the former minister and military general said that she “appreciate[s]” Huldai and that he is a “good mayor” whom she voted for in the past, but she believes that after a quarter-century, the city needs “fresh blood.”
“I appreciate and I even like Ron. But the time has come for a change,” she said to a crowd of some 200 activists gathered at an event space overlooking the Tel Aviv Municipality. “There is no one, talented though he may be, who can do the same job for 25 years with the same ability. It’s time to pass the baton.”
Her candidacy is part of what opposition leader Yair Lapid said is a “strategic decision” to try to instantiate party mayors in “cities with liberal values.”
Since its 2012 founding, Lapid’s Yesh Atid party has carved a dominant role in centrist national politics. However, the party has yet to develop local-level depth, despite amassing a network of about 130 local branches and a significant volunteer base.
Party insiders say their municipal election strategy is two-fold, focusing both on developing power bases in local authorities as a counterweight to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline coalition and to develop the next level of national party leadership, through the municipal layer.
Currently, Yesh Atid’s largest municipal hold is over the southern city of Arad, although it also held Hadera in the past. Tel Aviv — Israel’s second-largest city — would be a significant change in the party’s municipal presence.
In addition to Tel Aviv, the party is expected to contest Rehovot and a number of smaller cities, but will not run a candidate in Jerusalem’s similarly prominent race.
Barbivai and Lapid leaned heavily on the former head of the Israel Defense Force’s Manpower Directorate’s management chops, saying that part of her qualification for the job is that she has managed budgets and workforces larger than the city of Tel Aviv’s.
The lawmaker, who is expected to quit the Knesset after the current session wraps at the end of July in order to focus on the Tel Aviv race, said she wants to maintain Tel Aviv’s commitment to equality, pluralism and liberal values, but also wants to improve quality of life for citizens plagued by the high cost of living and ubiquitous construction projects.
She said Huldai has “good intentions” by engaging in infrastructure and urban renewal construction projects, which blanket the city. But she said planning could have been approached differently, so as not to have threatened residents’ “personal security” and feeling of control, causing them to feel “abandoned” in pursuing basic quality of life.
Tel Aviv is Israel’s most expensive city, and in 2021 was also the world’s, according to one ranking. Barbivai said that she wants to return the “fruits” of municipal investment back to citizens, rather than impose them as “costs” on quality of life.
Israel’s economic and financial capital is also one of the country’s most tolerant and progressive, and the MK tied her run to the desire to protect its liberal character at a difficult national political moment to her run.
“I’ve had the desire to work in Tel Aviv for years,” said the Afula-native but now longtime Tel Aviv resident. “And at this moment, with this bad coalition that wants to reduce the power of municipal authorities, to me it’s a call to come and do something,” she added.
Yesh Atid leads the opposition against Netanyahu’s government, and has framed this political moment as a fight to preserve Israel’s liberal democratic character against assault.
The Tel Aviv race, however, is more likely to be framed by local concerns than national character. In addition to Barbivai and Huldai, four other candidates have announced for the fall election: businessman and former lawmaker Yuval Zellner, Tel Aviv councilwoman Zippi Brand and Huldai’s former deputy mayor Reuven Ladianski.
