The primary legal obstacle to one of the most dramatic political realignments of the current election cycle has been removed.
A legal opinion issued on Thursday by Central Elections Committee Chairman and Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg effectively provides the legal green light for MK Tally Gotliv to jump from the Likud faction to the Otzma Yehudit slate led by Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Although delivered in the formal matter concerning MK Eitan Ginzburg, the ruling’s legal ramifications apply directly to the high-stakes political negotiations surrounding Gotliv.
The crux of the legal dispute centered on whether a serving Member of the Knesset seeking to run in upcoming elections on the slate of a rival faction is classified as a “lawmaker who defected from their faction,” and what their statutory status is when the transfer occurs with the explicit consent of their home party—a critical question given severe statutory sanctions barring defecting lawmakers from running on existing Knesset slates unless they immediately resign their seat.
Justice Sohlberg examined the case of MK Ginzburg, who declared his intention to run on the list of an existing Knesset faction.
While Sohlberg noted that “such an act inherently carries the characteristics of factional defection,” he ruled that explicit consent from the lawmaker’s original faction fundamentally alters the legal framework.
In his opinion, Sohlberg wrote: “It is my legal opinion that under these circumstances—the consent significantly obscures the character of the defection, to the extent of establishing that, for all practical and legal purposes, MK Ginzburg has not truly defected from his faction. Therefore, according to my legal opinion, there is no requirement for MK Ginzburg to resign from his parliamentary seat to run on a candidate slate submitted by a party currently represented in the outgoing Knesset.”
This landmark determination was made possible largely by a sharp reversal within the Likud party itself.
In legal filings regarding the Ginzburg proceedings, Likud announced it was retracting its earlier objections to the maneuver, arguing: “Following a reexamination of the circumstances, the Likud movement wishes to withdraw its argument, as it believes that when an explicit agreement exists between a Knesset member and their faction, there is no place for outside intervention.”
The shift in Likud’s posture, paired with Justice Sohlberg’s formal opinion, untangles the legal gridlock that threatened to derail Gotliv’s transfer and sets an unmistakable precedent: as long as mutual consent is reached with Likud, crossing over to a competing slate does not constitute an unlawful defection forcing the lawmaker to sacrifice her parliamentary seat.
For Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the ruling is a pivotal strategic breakthrough ahead of the deadline for submitting party lists.
The Otzma Yehudit chairman has pushed aggressively to draft Gotliv to his ticket after she won a high spot in Likud’s primary but was later pushed down to the 20th spot on the final slate because of reserved factional slots.
Her demotion sparked public fury from Gotliv, who launched scathing attacks on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inner circle, accusing them of deliberately trying to weaken her political standing.
With just days remaining before the official closure of Knesset candidate slates, the primary legal cloud hanging over the move has evaporated.
Once final terms between Ben-Gvir and Gotliv are formalized alongside political understandings with Likud, the path is wide open for Gotliv to transition smoothly into Otzma Yehudit without resigning from the current Knesset—a transfer poised to significantly reshape the internal balance of power across the right-wing bloc ahead of election day