(JTA) — Limor Livnat, Israel’s culture and sports minister, said she is quitting political life.
Livnat, 64, a Likud Knesset member since 1992 and the party’s highest-ranking female member for many years, made the announcement on Monday. She served as education minister from 1996 to 1999, and headed the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women.
She told Israel’s Channel 2 news that she wanted to move in “new directions,” the Times of Israel reported, but stressed that “the Likud remains my home.”
According to Haaretz, Livnat has been marginalized within her party in recent years because of her moderate positions. She has criticized the controversial Jewish nation-state bill and was the only Likud minister not to vote for it.
In a November interview with Army Radio, she criticized Likud’s move to the right.
“The Likud was always a right-center party and that’s what it needs to be,” she said. “Unfortunately, there are people in the Likud who are not moderate and are pushing the party to places I don’t want to see it.”
