Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday evening that she will not run for the next Knesset.
Livnat has been an MK for 23 years, 14 of which she was a minister.
"I am satisfied with my accomplishments in my political career and I want to go in a different direction," she said.
Livnat said she made the decision months ago and talked about it with Netanyahu then. She said she would complete important reforms in her ministry before leaving.
She began her political career in 1977 when she headed the Likud Youth organization when the party took power for the first time under Menachem Begin.
Livnat has served as education minister and communication minister, as well as her current role.
She was the top woman in Likud for many years, but in last year's election, MKs Tzipi Hotovely and Miri Regev got more votes.
Two weeks ago, she blasted Likud for moving too far to the Right. She was the only Likud minister who did not vote for coalition chairman Ze’ev Elkin’s controversial “Jewish state bill.”
“There are those in the Likud who are much more right-wing than the party’s traditional values,” Livnat told Army Radio. “The Likud was always a right-center party and that’s what it needs to be. Unfortunately, there are people in the Likud who are not moderate and are pushing the party to places I don’t want to see it.”
She had a history of sparring with hawks in the Likud. She has told The Jerusalem Post in the past that allies of MK Moshe Feiglin were “not Likudniks” and should be prevented from taking over the party.
Two Likud MKs mocked the veteran minister two weeks ago, saying that Livnat “was just trying to pretend she’s still relevant.”