Oct 18, 2026
The Law of the Indicted
Currently according to the law in Israel, as I understand it, anyone under criminal indictment is allowed to run for Knesset but cannot be appointed to a ministerial position. Even though Prime Minister is somewhat a ministerial position, the ultimate ministerial position, it is not specifically denied in law to someone under indictment, which is why the Supreme Court allowed Netanyahu to continue running for Prime Minister, when his candidacy was challenged a few years ago.
Back in 2021 Gideon Saar proposed an amendment to the current law that would also prevent anyone under indictment from being Prime Minister. Saar's proposal became known as Chok HaNeesham - the Law of the Indicted. I am not sure what happened to Saar's proposal - it seems to have just never been dealt with due to the multiple elections and chaos happening in those years.
MK Avigdor Lieberman has spoken out today (and maybe others have as well, not sure) that after the elections, assuming he and his potential coalition partners obtain some sort of victory in the elections, will immediately move to replace Speaker of the Knesset Amir Ohana with their own representative (nothing wrong with this move, it has been done before), and then immediately pass Law of the Indicted, Chok HaNeesham, which would then prevent Netanyahu from running again for Prime Minister (at least until his court cases are finished in his favor with an exoneration of all the main charges) in future elections.
Whether it is a good law or not I don't know, though I think it is. Just like someone indicted should not be any other type of minister, he or she should also not be Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister's attention should be focused on running the country, not on defending himself in court. Even being a good law, it should not be used to ban Netanyahu from running, at least one election forward. Passing this would be a law targeted at someone specifically which should always be out of bounds. If they do pass it, I would expect and hope that Netanyahu would be allowed to run in at least the elections after that (and I am saying this as someone who no longer supports Netanyahu for Prime Minister), though maybe not in elections after the next one. We cannot pass laws targeting specific people and we cannot change the rules in the middle of the game. If after the coming elections this law gets passed, it should only go into effect after the next elections after these.
It would though be fun to see Gideon Saar's law passed to hurt Netanyahu after seeing how Saar has changed his poisitions the past 2 years....
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Labels:
Gideon Saar,
Netanyahu,
proposed law
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The problem with this law is that it puts too much power in the hands of the legal system. They can indict anyone and block him from running for office, even if the indictment ends up going nowhere, as is happening with the cases against Bibi.
ReplyDeleteIt's clear to all those without Bibi Derangement Syndrome that the ongoing court cases against him have descended into farce. They continue simply so his enemies can say 'You see! He's an accused criminal!" Having made no progress in years this is their new idea to get rid of him. Keep the useless cases going and then pronounce him unfit to run for office.
ReplyDeleteLieberman has some chutzpah here considering how many members of his own party have literally gone to jail. (And he's pretty dirty himself.) This is of course a ploy to keep himself above water.
ReplyDeleteSol Wachtler, former Chief Justice of New York, famously said that you can "indict a ham sandwich." (Ironically, he later went to jail himself.) Indictments are easy, proof being the nonsense Bibi was charged with. There are no grand juries in Israel, to boot. A law like this doesn't have to invite abuse because the abuse *already* exists.
In the US people can run for office from jail. There's no reason *anyone* should be barred, but this law is just biased and stupid. Personal laws should be illegal (they are in the US), and this certainly is one, if anyone is paying any attention.