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

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. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90
MK Idan Roll during a Knesset house committee meeting on January 14, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90

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

In his request to the committee, Roll states 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 says, calling for utilizing the lessons learned following October 7 to create something new, adding that he believes 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 continues. “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.”

In response, Yesh Atid faction chair Merav Ben Ari tells Roll that if he wants “new politics, then leave and let new a leadership come in.” She argues 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 argues.

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.

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