Yisrael Beytenu lawmaker Sharon Gal announces he is leaving politics, saying that he would put his talents to better use as a journalist.
Gal’s political exit comes less than half a year after he was elected.
“As a former journalist with an agenda, I was given an opportunity before the last election to try to advance it from within the Knesset as a member of the Yisrael Beytenu faction. I was happy about the opportunity and I used it in an optimal way during my tenure,” Gal says, according to daily newspaper Haaretz.
Gal, a journalist and TV personality, hosted an economics program on Channel 10 for a decade before leaving in 2013 amid allegations of sexual impropriety and harassment, though the case was eventually dropped by police due to lack of evidence. He also spent time as a correspondent for Haaretz.
MK Sharon Gal addresses the Israeli parliament during a debate on his “death sentence for terrorists” bill, July 15, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
“I regret Sharon Gal’s decision to retire from the Knesset but I respect the fact that Gal is acting according to his conscience and out of a desire to bring his talents to expression in the best way possible in order to contribute to the State of Israel,” writes Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman on his Facebook page.
Gal’s departure from the Knesset comes only hours after Yesh Atid MK Shai Piron, who previously served as education minister, announced this morning that he was leaving politics in order to take up a senior teaching position at a Sderot college.
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