Knesset approves MK Idan Roll’s request to leave Yesh Atid party

Rebel lawmaker slams Yair Lapid’s ‘divisive and polarizing’ leadership, derides Yesh Atid as ‘a closed party headed by a single leader’

Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

MK Idan Roll during a Knesset house committee meeting on January 14, 2025. (Noam Moskowitz, Office of the Knesset Spokesperson)
MK Idan Roll during a Knesset house committee meeting on January 14, 2025. (Noam Moskowitz, Office of the Knesset Spokesperson)

The Knesset House Committee voted 11-0 on Tuesday to approve MK Idan Roll’s request to resign from the Yesh Atid party.

In his request to the committee, Roll stated that Israeli society “underwent a tremendous upheaval on October 7” and that out of this a new camp “has developed that wants to put behind it everything that existed until October 7” and “create a liberal agenda.”

“This house remains closed to what is happening outside,” he asserted, calling for utilizing the lessons learned following October 7 to create something new and alleging that the Knesset “quickly returned to the habits of October 7.”

“Therefore, I say here: It will not help if every existing party receives another seat or two. The rules have changed. The time has come for the national majority to create a national agenda,” he continued. “The only way this will happen is to lower the threshold and open this closed club. Everyone here swore allegiance to the State of Israel and not to the party leaders.”

Roll also harshly criticized Yesh Atid party chairman Yair Lapid, writing in Haaretz that the opposition leader believes that “a Knesset member has no status, only the party, [and that] therefore, if I am honest, I must align myself with the party line or return the mandate.”

“Lapid is wrong, but it’s hard for me to say I don’t understand his resentment. After all, he created and ran Yesh Atid as a closed party headed by a single leader, and parties of this type have difficulty accommodating the kind of conscientious conduct that the authors of the oath of allegiance actually hoped to encourage,” Roll asserted.

Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid (R) and MK Idan Roll, at a press conference in Tel Aviv on February 7, 2019. (Flash90)

“Since October 7, I have felt a growing gap between the public need for substantive politics, based on cooperation in advancing the national interest, and the divisive and polarizing way in which Lapid chose to lead Yesh Atid,” Roll added, insisting that in order to “represent the liberal public in the future, Yesh Atid will have to become an open party.”

“My political future does not interest me, but rather the future of the country, and that is why I decided to dedicate myself to changing the rules that have turned the Knesset — like Yesh Atid — into a closed club.”

In response, Yesh Atid faction chair Merav Ben Ari told Roll that if he wanted “new politics, then [he should] leave and let a new leadership come in.” She argued that “we are not all the same people since October 7 and understand the magnitude of the responsibility.”

“The honest thing you need to do is resign and return the seat to Yesh Atid,” she declared.

Roll is now forbidden by law to run in the next election under any party currently in the Knesset — an ordinance put in place to prevent sitting lawmakers from joining rival parties in return for material favors.

However, this is unlikely to be an issue as Roll, who announced his resignation from Yesh Atid on Sunday, plans on establishing a new faction that will be called National Majority.

Roll’s move comes a month after Sa’ar’s right-wing New Hope party joined the government, lowering the opposition’s representation from 56 to 52 of the Knesset’s 120 seats.

Opposition Leader MK Yair Lapid leads a Yesh Atid party faction meeting, January 13, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

First elected to the Knesset in 2019, Roll, an openly gay former model, began his political career as an LGBTQ rights activist. His high visibility as an activist was due, in part, to his relationship with pop singer Harel Skaat, with whom he has two children.

As deputy foreign minister under Lapid, Roll sought to promote Israel’s image as a leader on LGBTQ rights and climate change in a bid to mend ties with the US Democratic Party as it became more critical of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

Since October 7, 2023 — when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza — Roll has expressed opposition to letting the Palestinian Authority take control of the Strip instead of Hamas, contrary to Lapid’s position.

Possibly presaging his departure from Yesh Atid, Roll submitted draft legislation in June to lower the electoral threshold — the percentage of votes any faction needs to receive to gain representation in parliament — from 3.75 percent to 2%. The bill, which is still in committee, could make it easier for Roll to reenter parliament on an independent slate in the next election, which is scheduled for October 2026. By contrast, Lapid has long supported a high electoral threshold.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

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