Sunday, 28 Apr 2024

Netanyahu’s Coalition May Help Stave Off Indictment

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who emerged from this week’s election poised to win a fourth consecutive term, may benefit from an effort by his right-wing coalition to protect him from prosecution on possible corruption charges.

At least one right-wing party expected to join his new governing coalition has been open about its goal of passing a law granting immunity to Israeli Parliament members, including prime ministers.

Mr. Netanyahu, who worked on Wednesday to consolidate support for a new coalition, is on track to become Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, but also the first to be charged with a crime while in office.

“If Netanyahu gains the public’s trust in the coming elections,” Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Union of Right Wing Parties, wrote on Twitter last month, “it will be imperative to enact a law that will prevent him standing trial.”

Mr. Smotrich said parliamentary immunity was necessary to honor the people’s democratic choice and ensure smooth government. By Wednesday, his party was projected to win five seats in the 120-seat Knesset, or parliament.

An aide said on Wednesday that Mr. Smotrich was demanding the post of justice minister and another leader of his party wanted to be minister of education.

Many countries grant lawmakers immunity. Israel too used to have such a law.

Until 2005, Israeli lawmakers had immunity that could only be removed by a vote of Parliament. The law was changed in 2005 after Supreme Court petitions to lift immunity in several cases where Parliament had denied it.

Mr. Netanyahu could request immunity by an act of Parliament now without a new law, but legal experts said the Supreme Court would be likely to reverse the decision for fear of harming the public’s trust in government institutions.

Two ultra-Orthodox parties whose support Mr. Netanyahu will need to help him build a governing majority are unlikely to oppose legislation restoring automatic immunity for members of Parliament.

Two of their leaders, Yaakov Litzman, of United Torah Judaism, and Aryeh Deri, of Shas, have recently been under police investigation themselves. Moshe Gafni, a lawmaker from United Torah Judaism, said his party would wait and see how Mr. Netanyahu’s cases proceeded.

Israel’s attorney general said in February that he planned to indict Mr. Netanyahu on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Mr. Netanyahu, who denies any wrongdoing, is entitled to a hearing before an indictment is issued.

Mr. Netanyahu has said in the past that he would not promote a new immunity law. But when pressed in a television interview days before the election, he was more evasive, saying only that he was currently “not dealing” with the issue.

Some potential coalition partners have spoken out against an immunity law, saying they oppose any personalized and retroactive legislation designed to help Mr. Netanyahu. Some senior members of his own conservative Likud party have expressed similar sentiments.

Yuli Edelstien, the No. 2 in Likud and long time Parliament speaker, told reporters last week that Mr. Netanyahu, like everybody else, should be treated as innocent until proven guilty. Regarding immunity, Mr. Edelstein said, “No one is seriously discussing this kind of legislation in the Israeli Knesset.”

But Mr. Netanyahu’s critics suspect that he may promise right-wing parties that he would support the annexation of some Jewish settlements in the West Bank in exchange for their support for an immunity law.

The liberal Haaretz newspaper said Wednesday that the two goals of the emerging government “could be summed up as ‘immunity in exchange for sovereignty.’”

In a surprise announcement a few days before the election, Mr. Netanyahu pledged to begin extending sovereignty into the occupied West Bank, a popular cause on the Israeli right and within his own party. He had resisted such a policy in the past, and much of the world would consider it a violation of international law.

Mr. Smotrich’s aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be able to discuss internal party affairs, vehemently denied any linkage between immunity and sovereignty. He said Mr. Smotrich had never discussed the immunity law with Mr. Netanyahu, and needed no encouragement or payback to support either immunity or annexation.

Shortly before Mr. Netanyahu’s unexpected announcement, Mr. Edelstein, the Likud official, said he had not heard of any proposal to impose sovereignty in the West Bank, though Likud favored it in principle.

Amir Fuchs, an expert in legislative processes at the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan research group in Jerusalem, said he found the talk of an immunity-for-sovereignty deal “embarrassing” and said it would “go against the rule of law.”

Legally, Mr. Netanyahu can stay in office until a final conviction.

“It would not be so surprising,” Mr. Fuchs said, “if he kept his job while on trial.”

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