Israel's center-left Labor party voted on Monday against joining incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's future government.

A majority of the party voted against joining Netanyahu's coalition and sided with staying in the opposition.

"Most of the party's members backed the clear, solid decision not to join Netanyahu's next government," Labor's chief Shelly Yachimovich told reporters following the meeting.

"We will fight every day, every hour against the extreme capitalist ideology of Netanyahu and his partners. Israeli opposition was useless for many years. We will show the public what it means to be an opposition," she added.

The Labor party got just 15 seats out of a total of 120 seats in last week's elections and became the third largest party, a disappointing outcome for the party, who hoped for 20 seats or more in the next government.

A member of the Labor's campaign told Xinhua following the results of the elections that the one of the party's biggest mistakes was disregarding the Palestinian issue.

On Jan. 3, prior to the Jan. 22 elections, Yachimovich said that the party will not take part in Netanyahu-led right-wing coalition.

During the meeting, several members of the party criticized Yachimovich's leadership and her decision to announce she will not take part in Netanyahu's coalition before the elections take place.

"We lost seats to the left-wing and center parties, after you announced your decision not to join the government and the positive light you put on the settlements," Yitzhak Herzog, No. 2 in the party's roster, told Yachimovich during the meeting.

Other factors within the party told local news outlets that they are interested in setting an earlier date for the internal election for a party leader within the party.

Likud-Beytenu's chief Netanyahu is the most likely person to form a coalition. The party that won 31 seats in the election has the most possible partners to build a coalition.

Later on this week, President Shimon Peres is set to appoint Netanyahu to build the next coalition. Endi

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