The heads of the Noam chardal party on Sunday announced their decision to drop out of the election race. The official announcement was scheduled to be made during a press conference from Jerusalem’s Ramada Hotel at 4:00PM.

Officials in the party notified Yahadut Hatorah, as they were conducting talks, but Noam officials announced they are not recommending any specific party but will permit backers to vote as they see fit. This leaves Yahadut Hatorah disappointed, hoping the members and backers of the chareidi dati leumi party would see fit to recommend Yahadut Hatorah.

HaRav Tzvi Tau, the spiritual mentor of the struggling Noam party, called a meeting for Sunday morning with Roshei Yeshiva aligned with him to decide if the party will continue or drop out of the election for 22nd Knesset.

The meeting came with less than 48 hours to the election for 22nd Knesset, which begins on Tuesday morning, September 17, 2019. To date, Noam has not received a sufficient number of votes to pass the minimum electoral threshold to enter Knesset, leading to right-wing parties and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu calling on Noam to drop out of the race to prevent losing votes for the right-wing and religious parties.

While Rav Tau was determined to continue to the end, the leaders of the party recommended the party resign from the election race.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)