MKs reject bills, aimed at PM, barring anyone indicted from becoming president

A series of bills aimed at preventing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from potentially serving as president in the future were voted down by coalition lawmakers on Wednesday.

The three pieces of legislation aimed at embarrassing the premier would have barred persons under indictment for misdemeanors or criminal offenses from serving as president. They would also have ruled out from serving in the post anyone convicted of a crime whose punishment is longer than three months in prison and whose statute of limitations has not expired.

Coalition lawmakers voted down the bills 37-30, 34-26 and 35-27. The vast majority of Blue and White lawmakers were absent from the plenum as voting took place. Blue and White had campaigned on advancing legislation barring those indicted from serving in senior posts, but has had to change its stance since entering into a government with Netanyahu earlier this year.

Netanyahu was indicted last year in three cases on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. His trial is underway and is slated to pick up pace in January with witness testimony.

Opposition lawmakers Yoav Segalovitz (Yesh Atid), Yulia Malinovsky (Yisrael Beytenu) and Merav Michaeli (Labor) proposed the legislation against the backdrop of rumors that Netanyahu could seek to run for the presidency and replace President Reuven Rivlin at the conclusion of his rotational premiership term in November 2021, if elections aren’t called before then.

“What do you want to have a president under indictment for?” Malinovsky said during the plenum debate. “We need to think about our children and what they will learn in civics class, what the world will say about us, how we will feel as citizens if this happens.”