PM immunity bill shelved for month amid Jewish Home opposition

The Jewish Home party announced on Wednesday that it would oppose the so-called “French Bill” granting immunity to serving prime ministers from corruption investigations until their terms are ended.

According to Hebrew media reports, votes on the immunity bill were subsequently delayed by a month. But the coalition agreed to advance in its wake another bill to end police recommendations for prosecution, which will likely receive coalition support, reports said.

According to the immunity bill’s author, Likud MK David Amsalem, it is intended to prevent sitting prime ministers from having to deal with investigations into their affairs during their terms, leaving them able to focus on the business of governing the country.

The bill excludes from its protections any investigation already launched, and so would not protect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from ongoing probes into him.

Critics, including Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and many lawmakers, have said the measure would place prime ministers above the law for years at a time, making them more likely to act unethically while they occupy the highest office in Israel’s government.

According to a letter sent Wednesday from Jewish Home’s Knesset faction chair, MK Shuli Moalem-Refaeli, to Likud’s coalition chair MK David Bitan, Jewish Home’s opposition to the bill follows a “substantive and detailed discussion” in the party’s faction meeting on Monday.

“The discussion revealed significant disagreements between members of the faction, and no agreement was reached” within the party.

In light of that disagreement, Jewish Home decided to formally oppose the bill’s passage, Moalem-Refaeli writes.

According to the coalition agreements that underpin the current ruling government, no changes to Israel’s semi-constitutional Basic Laws can be passed without the agreement of all six coalition parties, giving each coalition partner a veto over such bills. Amsalem’s bill is just such an amendment to the Basic Law: The Government.

On Sunday, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) postponed a vote on the bill in the powerful Ministerial Committee for Legislation. In response, coalition chair Bitan, a staunch Netanyahu ally, reportedly threatened to freeze all government legislation until the bill is passed by the committee.

The proposed legislation comes as Netanyahu was being investigated in two corruption cases. The prime minister denies all wrongdoing.