Ministers approve Sa’ar’s long-shot bill to impose term limits for prime minister

The Ministerial Committee for Legislation re-approves Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s bill to limit prime ministerial term limits to eight consecutive years, enabling the justice minister to advance it to the plenum for its first reading.

The bill is unlikely to pass, though, as the coalition is also hoping to disperse the Knesset as early as tomorrow, leaving Sa’ar with hours to advance his legislation through three readings.

Although it would not apply retroactively, the bill is understood to be a jab against former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister and most recently held the job for 12 years straight.

“Too long of a rule brings with it a concentration of power and the danger of corruption, and therefore it is correct to include within the Basic Law the principle of term limits,” Sa’ar writes in a statement.

“Restricting terms instead of unlimited tenure is an important principle at the core of the perception that the government will work for the benefit of the citizens, instead of for its own sake and its survival,” the justice minister continues, adding, “We will continue to strengthen Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.”

A previous effort to pass the term limit bill expired in May, when the coalition lacked the votes to complete its legislative process. Sa’ar, a Netanyahu-insider-turned-rival, has made the term limit bill one of his flagship legislative efforts.

Earlier today, the Knesset’s Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee discussed a bill to prevent a criminal defendant from forming a government, also viewed as targeted against the Likud leader.