Likud Issues 24-Hour Ultimatum to Ilouz and Edelstein: "It Is Not Proper"

Knesset member Avichai Boaron from Likud called today, Sunday, for Knesset members Dan Ilouz and Yuli Edelstein to resign within 24 hours, and announced that if they do not do so, he will act to convene the Likud faction to advance a process of declaring them "defectors."

"Dan Ilouz and Yuli Edelstein are acting immorally. We have become accustomed to seeing MKs moving from here to there, but this phenomenon is, to put it mildly, unethical. After all, Dan Ilouz would never have entered the Knesset if not for the Likud members who gave him the mandate to represent them in the new immigrant slot on the Likud list, and if not for the Likud voters who sent him to the Knesset. And the same goes for Yuli Edelstein, who was elected by Likud votes to lead an agenda and be loyal to the movement and the movement's law."

Boaron added: "Certainly, a person can change his mind and join a political party in which he did not grow up and start a new political path, but to make a political shift while trading the votes of his constituents and the mandate given to him by Likud voters is not proper. It is ugly. It is a breach of the public trust that chose you."

He later said: "This is true regarding Dan Ilouz and this is true regarding Yuli Edelstein. Both should have resigned immediately the moment they announced their departure from Likud. As long as they do not do so, they are failing in their duty and the trust of their voters and are acting in an ugly and immoral way that harms right-wing voters in general and Likud in particular. As long as they do not resign in the next 24 hours, I will act to convene the Likud faction in order to advance a process of declaring them 'defectors.' Likud voters deserve representatives with a clear ideology and a backbone - and that is how it will be."