(JTA) — Veteran Israeli Labor Party lawmaker Benjamin Ben Eliezer resigned from the Knesset.

Ben Eliezer delivered his letter of resignation to Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein on Thursday.

He said he was resigning due to a medical condition that “takes up most of my time and energy,” Haaretz reported. Ben Eliezer, 78, was hospitalized last week. In 2011 he was hospitalized for six weeks with complications from the flu.

Ben Eliezer previously served as Labor Party chairman and defense minister.

In June, Ben Eliezer pulled out of the race for president following accusations that he illegally received millions of shekels from private sources and used the money to buy a luxury apartment in Jaffa. He is currently under criminal investigation for the suspected corruption.

A statement issued Thursday by the Labor Party honored “the boy who immigrated on his own from Iraq at a young age, is a fighter on the battlefield and a fighter for peace… We wish him good health and happiness.”