Sa’ar: Opposition to bill barring indicted MK from forming government is ‘personal’

Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar hits out at opponents of a bill to prevent a Knesset member under criminal indictment from forming a government.

“A mayor, the only person who is chosen directly by the residents, is suspended when an indictment is filed against him… A minister or deputy minister resigns when an indictment is filed against him. Applying this norm to the role of prime minister is a moral statement of the legislator,” Sa’ar writes on Twitter.

He asserts that opposition to the proposal — and not the bill itself — is “personal,” referring to criticism that the measure is aimed at blocking Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu from returning to the premiership amid his trial on graft charges.

Sa’ar’s tweet comes a day after television reports cited opposition in Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party to the bill, particularly by Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked.