Minister for Religious Services MK David Azoulay (Shas) on Monday submitted his resignation from the Knesset. He is currently under medical treatment.
Azoulay will be replaced in the Knesset by his son, Yanun Azoulay, but will continue to serve as Minister for Religious Services. His resignation from the Knesset will come into effect on Wednesday.
In the past two years, Yanun Azoulay has served as a senior adviser to Minister Aryeh Deri. He was ranked 16th on the 2015 Shas election list, which won only seven Knesset seats. Now all the individuals on the Shas Knesset list have submitted their resignation to the Central Elections Committee, so that Yanun Azoulay could take his father’s seat out of turn.
MK David Azoulay made headlines in 2015, when in a meeting with MK Ayelet Shaked about Women of the Wall, he referred to them as “provocateurs,” and said that Reform Judaism is “a disaster for the nation of Israel.” WOW protested, as did clergyman Gilad Kariv, executive director of the Reform movement in Israel.