Freshman Likud MK Dan Illouz, who resigned from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party last month, will run in the upcoming election with Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu opposition party, he announced on Wednesday.

The Canadian-born attorney previously served as a Jerusalem City Councillor before entering the Knesset in 2023, where he made a name for himself as a right-wing ideologue and fierce opponent to granting military exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox.

In a statement, Illouz said that he was joining Yisrael Beytenu “because it is the party that today represents the national and liberal values in which I believe.”

Welcoming Illouz to his party, Liberman called him “a principled person who throughout his public career has demonstrated courage, integrity and a willingness to pay a personal price to stand up for his principles.”

Illouz announced last month that he would not stand in the Likud primary ahead of the October 27 election, saying the party had “been hijacked” to please ultra-Orthodox allies.

He had, at any rate, been unlikely to make it into the Knesset with Likud in the coming election, as he had previously been granted a spot on the slate that is reserved for new immigrants.

A leaked screenshot........

© The Times of Israel