Eilat Mayor Meir Yitzhak Halevi announced Monday that he will be joining former Likud minister Gideon Sa'ar's New Hope party.
Halevi expects to be assigned one of the top 10 spots on the list, and if New Hope wins enough seats, he will become the first Eilat native to serve in the Knesset.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
In a Twitter message, Halevi wrote: "I am happy and excited to be joining the New Hope movement under Gideon Sa'ar, the next prime minister of Israel. Israel needs new leadership and new hope. I decided to leave the Likud, of which I have been a member for many long years, because the movement and its leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, have changed and disappointed the public.
"Today, when we need unity more than ever, the Likud and its Netanyahu leadership are leading a divisive, offensive discourse marked by a culture of slander," Halevi wrote.
