Israel Supreme Court delays law that makes it harder to remove Netanyahu

Israel’s Supreme Court delays activation of law that makes it harder to remove Netanyahu from office

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands in front of an Israeli flag.

By TIA GOLDENBERG

Associated Press

Jan. 3, 2024 12:13 PM PT

JERUSALEM — A law that would make it harder to remove Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from office must go into effect only after the next parliamentary elections, the country’s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday, saying the legislation was clearly crafted for personal reasons.

Israeli legislators passed the law last year as part of the government’s contentious legal overhaul plan, which sparked widespread opposition and tore open deep divisions in society. Critics said the law was designed to protect Netanyahu from being deemed unfit to rule over claims of a conflict of interest. He had been working to reshape the justice system while on trial for alleged corruption.

“The personal affairs of the sitting prime minister were not just the motive for legislating the amendment but also the dominant justification for its legislation at the time it was enacted,” wrote outgoing Chief Justice Esther Hayut. “The amendment’s promoters wanted the amendment to enter into force immediately and that it apply to the sitting prime minister.”

The next parliamentary elections are expected in 2026 but could be held before then. That means Netanyahu — who is facing anger over the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas cross-border attack and hostages still held in the Gaza Strip — is in theory exposed until then to being deemed unfit to serve. However, Israel’s attorney general, who historically has had the authority to make that call, hasn’t publicly indicated she would.

While the court did not outright strike down the law, the ruling in a 6-5 vote deepens a divide that lingers between overhaul supporters and those who view the court as a bulwark defending Israel’s democratic fundamentals.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, an advocacy group that petitioned against the law, welcomed the ruling and said the prime minister “cannot create a golden cage for himself” while he is on trial.

“The court in its decision restored the logic that disappeared when this despicable law was enacted,” said the group’s chairman, Eliad Shraga.

The ruling comes days after the court overturned the first major piece of the overhaul, in a blow to Netanyahu’s government. The government has said the legal changes were meant to restore power to elected officials, but critics said they would upend Israel’s delicate system of checks and balances.

Israelis have found some unity after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and the war it sparked, but the rift over the legal overhaul still looms.

Netanyahu’s governing coalition — Israel’s most religious and nationalist ever — last year passed the amendment known as the “incapacitation law,” which allows a prime minister to be deemed unfit to rule only for medical or mental health reasons. Under the amendment, only the prime minister or the government has the power to determine a leader’s unfitness.

The previous version of the law was vague about the circumstances in which a prime minister could be deemed unfit, as well as who had the authority to declare it. But experts said the amendment expressly stripped the attorney general of the ability to do so.

The attorney general claims Netanyahu violated a conflict of interest agreement by dealing with the legal overhaul while on trial for corruption charges. He faces charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases. He denies wrongdoing.

His government was pressing ahead with the legal overhaul when Hamas struck in October, killing about 1,200 people and taking 240 people hostage.

It’s not clear what the government plans for the legal changes now that the country is at war.