Benny Gantz, head of the Blue and White party which is likely to be the biggest opposition faction in the upcoming Knesset, slams coalition negotiations in which a party has proposed a law shielding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from prosecution in three corruption cases in exchange for a full annexation of the West Bank.
This combination of pictures created on April 2, 2019 shows a file photo taken on April 1, 2019 of retired general Benny Gantz (L), head of the Blue and White party, and a photo taken on March 10, 2019 of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attending the weekly cabinet meeting at his Jerusalem office. (Jack Guez and Gali Tibbon/AFP)
“Establishing a government whose sole purpose is immunity for Netanyahu,” Gantz says in a statement after several days during which he was criticized for staying silent over the issue. “Employing Natan Eshel, trying to delay the hearing, selling the basic values of democracy. How sad and how unsurprising.”
Eshel is a Netanyahu associate who resigned from the Prime Minister’s Office over sexual misconduct allegations several years ago, but has returned to the political fray as a representative for the ruling Likud party in coalition negotiations.
Reports yesterday indicated that Netanyahu was trying to delay the pre-indictment hearing process in the graft cases by failing to collect the legal documents from the attorney general’s office for 12 days.
“Blue and White will lead the struggle against the prime minister’s attempt to buy himself a coalition that is a legal fortress. We will not let that happen,” Gantz says.
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From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
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