Arab MK steps down after shortest ever term

Joint List MK Ibrahim Hijasi to resign Monday after a month as a lawmaker — the Knesset was in recess the entire time

By ToI Staff 23 October 2017, 1:00 am 0 Edit

Joint (Arab) List MK Ibrahim Hijazi, who served for a month and is to resign on October 23, 2017. (Knesset website)

The Joint (Arab) List announced Sunday that one of its lawmakers will resign from the Knesset on Monday just a month after being sworn in, in what it described as the shortest ever term for a parliamentarian.

Ibrahim Hijazi became an MK on September 20, after the Knesset had begun its recess. As the legislature does not reconvene until next week, he will step down without ever having sat in the plenum.

No reason was given for his resignation. The next on the list, expected to replace Hijazi, is Youssef Atauna, though that was not confirmed in the party’s statement.

The Joint List is a combination of four parties: the secularist-communist Hadash, the nationalist Balad, and the Ra’am and Ta’al parties. The parties merged in 2015, ahead of the last election, in a bid to overcome an increased threshold for entry into the parliament.