Lawmakers advance a contested bill restricting police authority to recommend criminal charges in its first plenary vote.
The proposed legislation was cleared with 46 lawmakers in favor, 37 opposed, after hours of heated debate.
Coalition lawmakers Rachel Azaria (Kulanu) and Benny Begin (Likud) skipped the vote in protest.
The bill is widely seen as an attempt by Likud lawmakers to shield Netanyahu from the public fallout should police find sufficient evidence to warrant criminal charges by prosecutors.
The revised bill, approved by a Knesset panel a short while earlier, banning police — upon wrapping up an investigation into public officials — from informing prosecutors whether there are grounds for indictment, as well as publicizing information or leaking their conclusions to the media.
A last-minute change inserted in the legislation would permit the attorney general to seek police input in the existing corruption probes into Netanyahu, though, critically, he and police would be banned from publicizing those recommendations.
— Marissa Newman
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From the Liveblog of
Monday, November 27, 2017
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