JERUSALEM (JTA) — Veteran Labor Party lawmaker Benjamin Ben-Eliezer resigned from Israel’s Knesset, citing a medical condition.
Ben-Eliezer, a member of the parliament for 30 years, delivered his letter of resignation to Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein on Thursday.
The one-time Labor chairman and defense minister said he was resigning due to the condition, which “takes up most of my time and energy,” Haaretz reported.
Ben-Eliezer, 78, was hospitalized last week. In 2011 he was hospitalized for six weeks with complications from the flu.
In June, Ben-Eliezer pulled out of the race for president following accusations that he illegally received millions of shekels from private sources and used the money to buy a luxury apartment in Jaffa. He is under criminal investigation for the suspected corruption.
A statement issued Thursday by the Labor Party honored “the boy who immigrated on his own from Iraq at a young age, is a fighter on the battlefield and a fighter for peace. … We wish him good health and happiness.”
