Jewish Home minister hospitalized for serious illness
MK Uri Orbach takes leave in order to receive ‘urgent and significant treatment’; Bennett calls for prayers
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Pensioner Affairs Minister Uri Orbach announced he was receiving treatment for an unspecified ailment on Sunday, returning to the hospital two weeks after a previous visit.
“I have to take the time to treat urgent and important medical issues for my health,” Orbach wrote on Facebook. “Thank you for your prayers and your concern.”
The 54-year-old Jewish Home MK implored followers to avoid visiting him and not to spread rumors and hoped to return to full health “along with all of the other patients in Israel.”
Ynet reported that Orbach was hospitalized two weeks ago at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem and that his condition has worsened since.
Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett called for supporters to pray for Orbach’s health.
After receiving the seventh spot on the far right-wing party’s list, Orbach announced last Thursday that he was battling a bad flu that later developed into pneumonia, according to Israel National News.
“Now, at the the command of my doctors, I will be available in the near future to take care of my health matters more intensively, so that I can soon return to full health, with God’s help, to my work in the Knesset and government,” the minister stated. “I am grateful to the voters for their trust in me again, and I shall work as much as I am able before the next elections.”
Orbach added that he waited until the legislature was in recess in order to undergo treatment.
Uri Orbach was elected to the 18th Knesset in 2009, where he has remained ever since. The Jewish Home MK, who was made pensioner affairs minister in 2013, rose to prominence as an author of several children’s books and as a well-respected journalist for a number of national media outlets.
The Times of Israel Community.