JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, who failed to gain a seat in the new Knesset, announced that she will take a break from politics.
Shaked, who joined with Education Minister Naftali Bennett in forming the New Right Party, made the announcement Wednesday during a pre-Passover reception at the Justice Ministry.
“I am leaving for my own personal liberty, for a period that I cannot put a time limit on,” Shaked said at the reception.
The New Right Party fell some 1,400 votes under the electoral threshold of 3.25 percent of votes in the April 9 national election, thus failing to win seats in the new Knesset.
Shaked and Bennett conceded defeat on Tuesday night after demanding and receiving a recount. Her term as justice minister will presumably expire after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin, whose Likud party led the polls in the April 9 election, forms a new government.
In a Facebook post Tuesday evening in which she declared herself “optimistic” about Israel’s future, Shaked wrote, “We accept the will of the voters and are moving on.”
