Prime Minister Netanyahu is seriously afraid of being dismissed from office for violating the restrictions imposed on him by the status of a defendant. Of the upcoming hearings at BAGATS, Bibi is most concerned about the hearings scheduled for September 28 on appeals against amendments to the law on the removal of a prime minister deemed incapable of performing his duties – and it is not for nothing that these amendments are the ones, and not “ilat a-svirut” , the prime minister’s son Yair Netanyahu most fiercely defends in his Telegram channel.
An appeal, which requires the government’s legal adviser to remove Netanyahu from office for violating the agreement on the prevention of conflicts of interest, is also pending consideration at the BAGAC. Government counsel Gali Baarav-Miara is due to respond to the appeal on Sunday, September 10 – and, according to correspondent Aviad Glickman’s Hadashot 13, in her response she acknowledges that Netanyahu violated and continues to violate the prohibition on conflicts of interest by actively participating in decisions that could affect the outcome of his trial.
Amendment to the law on the removal of the prime minister, presciently carried out by the ruling coalition as the first step of “legal reform”, was supposed to relieve Netanyahu of the threat of removal from office for any official violations. According to the amended law, which entered into force at the time of publication, the Prime Minister of Israel can be removed only on the basis of physical or psychiatric illness and only on the initiative of either the Prime Minister himself or a majority of the government and the Knesset.
But at the beginning of August BAGATS suspended the action clause on the immediate entry into force of the new law, and the Damocles sword of removal for official crimes again hung over Netanyahu’s head. At least in theory, Baarav-Miara’s legal counsel can take such a step in extreme circumstances – or she will have to explain to the court why she does not use her legal prerogative to rid the country of a prime minister who threatens conflicts of interest and systematically ignores the court order. If the legal counsel does admit to BAGAT that Netanyahu is violating court orders (as reported by Aviad Glickman), this will multiply the threat hanging over his head.
On September 28, the High Court of Justice will hold a hearing and decide how persuasive the arguments presented by the Knesset are in favor of the need for an immediate amendment to the decades-old law to remove the prime minister – the judges were asked to explain why, to avoid accusations of “personal legislation” , the law cannot be postponed until the upcoming elections and changes in the composition of the Knesset. The threat of delaying the entry into force of the law looks quite real – and Netanyahu, expressing his readiness to freeze the entire “legal reform”, demands that an exception be made only for this law – so that the Knesset can pass it again, overcoming the BAGAT veto.
