page_title: Yuli Edelstein
section_title: Political career
hierarchical_section_title: Yuli Edelstein / Political career
caption_attribution_description: Photos by David Katz / The Israel Project
context_page_description: Yuli-Yoel Edelstein is an Israeli politician serving as Minister of Health since 2020. One of the most prominent refuseniks in the Soviet Union, he was the 16th Speaker of the Knesset from 2013 until his resignation on 25 March 2020.
context_section_description: Initially a member of the National Religious Party and a vice-president of Zionist Forum, Edelstein founded the Yisrael BaAliyah party together with fellow Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky. He was elected to the Knesset in 1996, and was appointed Minister of Immigrant Absorption in Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud-led government. He was re-elected in 1999, and was appointed Deputy Immigrant Absorption Minister by Ariel Sharon in 2001.
  He retained his seat in the 2003 elections, shortly after which Yisrael BaAliyah merged into Likud. Although Edelstein lost his seat in the 2006 elections, in which Likud was reduced to 12 seats (Edelstein was 14th on the party's list), he re-entered the Knesset as a replacement for Dan Naveh in February 2007. He retained his seat in the 2009 elections after being placed twelfth on the party's list, and was appointed Minister of Information and Diaspora in the Netanyahu government.
  Following the 2013 elections, he became Speaker of the Knesset. On 25 March 2020, he stepped down as the Speaker.
caption: Edelstein as Information Minister, briefing reporters at site of Hamas rocket attack, 2012
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