After coalition advances controversial legislation, MK leaving Likud says party has been ‘hijacked’

Likud MK Dan Ilouz repeats that he doesn’t plan to stick with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party in the next election.

“I simply cannot call on you to vote for a party that I myself am no longer able to vote for,” he writes on Facebook after the latest batch of controversial legislation is advanced by Netanyahu’s coalition.

“From evading responsibility for October 7, to promoting schemes (exempting ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students from military service) while our voters are collapsing in the reserves, to surrendering to interest groups that are raising the cost of living for all of us. This is no longer the Likud Party. This is a party that has been hijacked,” he adds.

Ilouz likely would have had a hard time being reelected anyway, as he was able to enter the Knesset through the Likud spot reserved for new immigrants — a benefit that would not have been available to him in the upcoming election.