Labor leader Amir Peretz announced Wednesday that he would be stepping down as party chairman after overseeing the political faction's worst-ever performance in the last election.
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Opinion polls show Peretz, who currently serves as the country's Economy Minister, as having lost the support of many Labor party voters after breaking his campaign promise not to join a government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a first since its inception in the 1960s, Labor is not expected to secure the prerequisite four-Knesset-seat electoral threshold.
"Out of a sense of responsibility, I am announcing that in the upcoming elections, I won't lead the Labor party and I won't head the party in the Knesset," Peretz wrote on Facebook.
"At this time, the Labor party needs renewal and must choose a new chairman and leadership."
