Resigning Likud MK set to be replaced by party’s first-ever ultra-Orthodox lawmaker

Rebel Likud MK Dan Illouz is set to be replaced by an ultra-Orthodox member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling party, after Illouz announced his pending resignation and move to a rival party over the recent raft of controversial legislation the coalition has pushed through the Knesset, aimed at appeasing the ultra-Orthodox parties.

According to Hebrew press reports, Shabtai Katash, a Chabad Hasid and member of the Lod religious council, will take Illouz’s place once he officially resigns from the Knesset.

He will be the first-ever Haredi member of Knesset for Likud.

Speaking with the Kikar HaShabbat website, Katash says he believes “Likud is a people’s party, and the Haredi sector also has something to say within Likud.”

Katash says he views it as his mission “to connect the parts of the people and not deepen the divisions,” adding that he believes that members of the ultra-Orthodox community who are not enrolled full-time in yeshiva “must enlist.”

“Those who study Torah must remain in the yeshiva” and “we need to ensure that those who enter the army remain ultra-Orthodox. I wish all secular people would both study Torah and serve in the army,” he says.

In another interview with the Srugim news site, Katash criticizes Illouz, saying that he is “definitely wrong because we are part of a faction, part of the Likud faction and there is coalition discipline.”

Illouz was one of the most vocal opponents of Likud efforts to legislate draft exemptions for Haredi yeshiva students. Announcing his resignation from the party and move to Avigdor Liberman’s right-wing secularist Yisrael Beytenu, the freshman lawmaker slammed Likud for “promoting schemes exempting ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students from military service while our voters are collapsing in the reserves.”