A lawmaker from the opposition Blue and White party is calling on Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to make Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately give up the justice portfolio, citing pending corruption charges against the premier.
Netanyahu became acting justice minister yesterday, after firing right-wing rival Ayelet Shaked from the post. He also dismissed fellow New Right member Naftali Bennett as education minister.
“As is known, the prime minister is serving under three indictments and is in a stormy political struggle with the judicial system. There is no disagreement that this is an impossible situation in which a person who is actively working against the judicial system and is in the middle of complex and highly sensitive legal proceedings will hold the justice portfolio,” MK Karine Elharrar writes in a letter to Mandelblit.
“This is a sharp conflict of interest in which a person accused of the crimes of bribery, fraud and breach of trust is responsible for the state prosecutors and your office,” she adds in the letter.
According to the Kan public broadcaster, Netanyahu is expected to announce a replacement as acting justice minister later today. Among the names reportedly under consideration are Likud ministers Ze’ev Elkin and Ofir Akunis, as well Likud MK Amir Ohana.
Blue and White MK Karine Elharrar speaks during a Knesset plenum session on May 20, 2019. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)
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