Likud expels anti-Netanyahu members

The Likud party in Israel has expelled around 100 members who are known to be against the policies of its leader Benjamin Netanyahu, the Jerusalem Post reported on Monday. The current Prime Minister has been heading the Likud for 14 years.

The expulsions come just 10 days before the Likud leadership primaries slated for 26 December. According to a senior Likud official, Michael Kleiner, the party decided to expel the new members after individual hearings. “This group acted like a fifth column inside the party,” said Kleiner.

He pointed out that they told people not to vote for the Likud. “Sharing a post telling voters that they have the choice not to vote for the Likud because of its corruption is certainly an acceptable reason to expel them.”

One of the leaders of the group of new Likud members, Nir Hershman, was reported by the Israeli newspaper as saying that it had registered about 10,000 people with the party.

“They expel certain members in order to affect the result [of the leadership vote],” Hershman explained. “They are monitoring people like Stasi [the former East German Ministry of State Security].” Stasi has been described as one of the most effective and repressive intelligence and secret police agencies ever to have existed. “The Likud needs to be cleaned up,” he added.

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