Former Yesh Atid MK Idan Roll quits Knesset after leaving party

Independent MK Idan Roll announces his resignation from the Knesset, stating that because he does not plan on running in the coming election, he believes that it is “appropriate to step down now at the beginning of the recess.”

The Knesset began a recess of nearly three months on July 27. It will reconvene on October 19 for the winter session.

In a lengthy post on X, Roll writes that he had done his best to serve the Israeli people through five election cycles, a global pandemic and a “bloody war” and was “grateful for the opportunity to advance the rights of the LGBTQ community,” and that he had attempted to promote a liberalism combining the promotion of human rights “alongside an uncompromising stance on our security.”

“I pray that in the next elections, a broad Zionist government will arise in Israel, one that will wisely leverage the many and unprecedented achievements of the war and shape a better future for our children in a new Middle East,” he adds.

In a statement, Yesh Atid chairman Opposition Leader Yair Lapid wishes Roll “much success going forward.”

This January, the Knesset House Committee voted 11-0 to approve Roll’s request to resign from Yesh Atid. At the time, Roll harshly criticized Lapid, writing in Haaretz that the opposition leader believes that “a Knesset member has no status, only the party.”

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

While Roll has previously stated that he plans on establishing a new faction that will be called National Majority, he did not mention this in his post today, instead stating that he was “retiring from the Knesset and political life.”