Labor MK Miki Rosenthal announces he will not run in upcoming elections
Rosenthal was previously accused of threatening behavior toward a fellow Labor party member.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFUpdated: JANUARY 9, 2019 16:08MK Miki Rosenthal 150(photo credit: Courtesy Knesset)
Labor MK Miki Rosenthal announced that he will not run in the upcoming Knesset elections, scheduled for April 9."I am leaving party politics, but I am not leaving public life in Israel," Rosenthal said in a statement released Wednesday. "I will continue to fight for Israel as a Jewish state that embraces equality and strives for peace, more just and less corrupt.""I am very grateful to all who put their trust in me," he said. "I am happy to have succeeded in helping thousands of citizens and I apologize to anyone for who I was not able help solve his issues."Rosenthal said he never saw his participation in the Knesset as a goal in and of itself, and "politics is to me just a means to an end. I conclude my six years in the Knesset with pride, significant legislative accomplishments and intensive parliamentary work that did not succumb to populism."This past July, fellow Labor MK Leah Fadida filed a complaint with the Knesset Ethics Committee against Rosenthal for threatening behavior.According to Fadida, Rosenthal screamed at her during a meeting after she said she would vote for a bill designed to prevent organizations that campaign against the IDF from visiting schools. She wrote that after she asked him to apologize, he approached her "in a violent and humiliating way."Rosenthal did not address the incident in his recent announcement. It is not clear if his exit from politics is connected to this.In December 2016, the Knesset Ethics Committee gravely reprimanded Rosenthal, accusing him of submitting a fake document to the committee as part of his request to receive approval for a trip to Australia.
