Who they are
Rafi Ben Shitrit is a former mayor of Beit She’an and one of the founders of the October Council. He was born in the town in 1966 and went to the Tachkemoni school and the religious ORT high school there. He studied education at Oranim College without finishing the degree and made his career in youth work instead: youth coordinator at the Beit She’an community centre, northern district coordinator for Bnei Akiva and director of the boarding school at the Neve Amiel youth village.
He came up through Likud, chairing its Beit She’an branch before winning a council seat. He was made deputy and acting mayor, then dismissed from both posts by the sitting mayor, and answered by founding his own list, Beit She’an HaChadasha, which took two seats and made him leader of the opposition. Five years on he took the mayoralty off Jackie Levy with 50.5 per cent of the vote. He left Likud for Kulanu in 2017, lost the town back to Levy, and went on to New Hope and then Yisrael Beiteinu.
His son Alroi, a soldier in collection unit 414, was killed at the Nahal Oz post on 7 October 2023. Ben Shitrit helped set up the civil commission of inquiry into that day, and founded the October Council with twenty other families, an association of more than 1,500 bereaved families, hostage families and survivors.
Positions and record
Commission of inquiry: Founded October Council to force a state inquiry, and says the coalition version lets the investigated appoint their investigators.
Why he left Likud: Says Likud went bankrupt and became a one-man party, and that Yisrael Beiteinu is what the movement used to be.
Haredi enlistment: Wants the service burden genuinely shared, and asks who legislates draft evasion for tens of thousands.
Judea & Samaria: Backs Jewish sovereignty in every part of the land, and strengthening the communities.
Judiciary: Calls the crisis with the courts manufactured, and asks why twenty years in power produced no reform.
Gaza: Says Hamas planned and carried out 7 October and must be destroyed, and calls the war's gains tactical.
Where they stand
Breaks with the party line on 2 issues, marked below.