MK Idan Roll, former deputy foreign minister, quits Knesset and leaves politics

Independent MK Idan Roll announced his resignation from the Knesset on Sunday, 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.

Roll was previously a member of opposition party Yesh Atid, and served as deputy foreign minister under party leader Yair Lapid.

In a lengthy post on X, Roll wrote 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.” He said 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 said.

In a statement, Lapid wished Roll “much success going forward.”

Adi Ezuz is set to enter the Knesset on behalf of Yesh Atid and fill the seat vacated by Roll.

In a statement, Yesh Atid welcomed Ezuz, a former Lapid adviser and disability rights activist who currently heads The Woman’s Courtyard organization, which “promotes social justice, equal opportunities and the right of every woman to achieve self-fulfillment in accordance with her will.”

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 [of their own], 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 had previously stated that he plans on establishing a new faction that would be called National Majority, he did not mention that in his resignation post, instead stating that he was “retiring from the Knesset and political life.”

First elected to the Knesset in 2019, Roll, an openly gay former model, began his political career as an LGBTQ rights activist. His high visibility as an activist has been due, in part, to his relationship with pop singer Harel Skaat, with whom he has two children.

As deputy foreign minister under Lapid, Roll sought to promote Israel’s image as a leader on LGBTQ rights and climate change in a bid to mend ties with the US Democratic party as it became more critical of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

Roll, who has positioned himself to the right of Yesh Atid during the war in Gaza, wrote on X that the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack needs to serve as a wake-up call.

Since October 7, 2023 — when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza — Roll has expressed opposition to letting the Palestinian Authority take control of the Strip in place of Hamas, contrary to Lapid’s position.