Bin Ami resigns from the Israeli Knesset

Israeli former minister Shlomo Ben Ami on Thursday resigned from the Knesset membership. The Labor party, in which Ben Ami is a member, said that he betrayed his party principles by having joined a coalition government chaired by the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon.

Bin Ami won an international reputation as a foreign minister in the Labor party government which lost the elections of February 2001 following the collapse of peace talks, held under American mediation, with the Palestinians and the eruption of the Palestinian Intifada against the Israeli occupation.