Shas leader Aryeh Deri confirmed on Sunday that he will not take up the seat he won in the 26th Knesset, but will stay on as party chairman.
Deri said on X that he asked the party's Council of Torah Sages to allow him to give up his Knesset seat, and it agreed.
He said the move frees him for "in-depth tours" across the country and closer ties with the grassroots and that his seat would go to "the young representatives".
Deri said he would continue to meet weekly with the Shas faction, guide its lawmakers and oversee their work.
"Together we will continue to restore the crown to its former glory and to safeguard the Torah world and the Jewish identity of the state," he wrote in Hebrew.
Deri has served in nine Knessets since first entering parliament following the 1992 election.
He previously served as interior minister in the government of Yitzhak Shamir, but was forced to take a step back from public life when he was convicted of taking bribes while in that role.
He was sentenced to three years in prison in 2000, but was released for good behaviour 22 months into his sentence.
Deri would remain out of politics until 2011 and was subsequently reelected in 2013, but resigned again the next year after a public clash with Shas’ founder, Ovadia Yosef.
He filled several ministerial posts but resigned from each, with the most significant coming in 2022 when his resignation came as part of a plea deal after he admitted to underreporting the value of a property he sold to his brother, Shlomo, in order to avoid tax.
Nonetheless, he led Shas into that year’s elections and returned to government, until he was forced to vacate his ministerial roles by the Supreme Court on the basis of his conviction.
But he has still played a key role within the governing coalition, particularly in the debate over Charedi conscription.
Under his leadership, Shas resigned all of its ministerial posts and threatened on several occasions to collapse the government, including by blocking the state budget, over the issue.
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