Yesh Atid to file bill that would bar Netanyahu from forming new government

The Yesh Atid-Telem faction says it will submit a bill to be voted on Wednesday that would bar a Knesset member under indictment from forming a government, which would prevent Prime Minister Netanyahu from cobbling together a new coalition.

“The fact that there was no cabinet meeting today and we’re galloping toward elections because the prime minister has indictments [against him] and this is all that occupies him is a complete disgrace,” Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, the head of Yesh Atid-Telem, says in a statement.

He adds: “People have nothing to eat, businesses are closing. The situation cannot continue like this.”

The announcement comes a day after MK Nitzan Horowitz, head of the left-wing Meretz party, also said he would file such a bill. The legislation would require the support of Defense Minister’s Blue and White party to have a shot at advancing it, and even then it doesn’t appear there would be a majority to pass it.

“Support for a law like this is right on an ethical level, but to agree to it is to go to elections. We entered the government because it was a difficult time,” Blue and White MK Eitan Ginzburg tells Army Radio.