Ajit Karn
Jerusalem: On Thursday, Israel ratified a law limiting the circumstances under which a prime minister can be removed, despite a government jurist’s concerns that it may be intended to insulate current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from any repercussions from his corruption trials.
The opposition argues that judicial independence is in jeopardy as a result of the amendment to the definition of “incapacity” for national leaders.
According to the coalition, the purpose of the reform is to combat the Supreme Court’s overreach and restore balance between the branches of government.
By a final vote of 61 to 47, the Knesset passed a bill allowing prime ministers to be deemed unsuitable and compelled to resign if they or three-quarters of cabinet ministers deem them so on physical or psychological grounds.
The stipulations expanded out a quasi-constitutional “basic law” that provides guidance to the government in the event of a non-functioning prime minister, but which previously lacked specifics on the circumstances that could lead to such a situation.
According to the nonpartisan Israel Democracy Institute, the rule had previously made Netanyahu susceptible to an infirmity claim by Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara, should she perceive an attempt by him to stop his three court cases.
The new law prohibits this, according to IDI senior researcher Amir Fuchs, who added that he had considered Bararav-Miara’s conclusion to be an unlikely “extreme case.”
Netanyahu denies all charges against him and has characterized the trials as an attempt to remove him from office motivated by politics.
Baharav-Miara, who was appointed by the former center-left Israeli government, stated last month that Netanyahu must recuse himself from his coalition’s drive for a judicial overhaul due to a conflict of interest deriving from his trials.
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During a Knesset review session on Tuesday, Gil Limon, the deputy of Baharav-Miara, voiced concerns about the incapacity measure.
“What we see before our eyes is a cluster of legislation elements that are most troubling and are being advanced at great speed,” Limon said, according to an official transcript.
They have the potential to serve a man’s personal interests regarding the outcomes of pending legal proceedings.
