Judges challenge Netanyahu lawyer’s claim that delaying recusal law would ‘nix election results’

Michael Rabello, a private lawyer representing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the High Court hearing on petitions against the recusal law, tells judges that voiding or delaying the implementation of the legislation would “leave open the option of a head-on collision between the branches of government, the option of the trampling of the Knesset” by ordering the premier to recuse himself.

He says such a scenario would be “a cancellation of the election results.”

Justices respond that what’s on the line isn’t an annulment of the entire law, but only a delay in its application.

Chief Justice Esther Hayut says: “How does delaying the implementation of the recusal law cancel the elections?”

Rabello is representing Netanyahu after Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara refused to do so and argued against the government’s position.