The legal drama continues: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu submitted his position to the High Court of Justice on Thursday for a conditional injunction on postponing the entry into force of the incapacitation law so that it would not be personal.
The Incapacitation Law Approved in First Reading (Archive) // Knesset Channel
Netanyahu opposes any High Court of Justice intervention in the Basic Law, and through attorney Michael Ravello argued that "for fear of abuse of incapacitation events as a route to circumvent the people's choice, the determination of incapacitation of a leader is also made in democratic countries by the leader himself or by the elected representatives of the people."
Netanyahu continued to claim that he opposes any arrangement whereby the attorney general or the court has the authority to remove him from incapacitation. Ravelo wrote that "the petitioners' interpretation of the previous constitutional arrangement, according to which the attorney general and/or the honorable court can remove
an elected prime minister for incapacitation other than physical or mental reasons, is completely contrary to the most basic principles of our constitutional regime, and such an interpretation even contradicts the principles of democratic governance."
Netanyahu wrote that there is no point in postponing the application of the Basic Law because in any case it did not anchor a legal innovation but clarified the situation already established in the Basic Law, according to which a prime minister can be incapacitated only if it is objective. The response stated: "Even according to the law before the constitutional amendment, the decision to incapacitate a prime minister was made by the government itself; Third, grounds incapable under the law prior to the constitutional amendment were for objective reasons of prevention, and it has never been established that the existence of criminal proceedings or conflicts of interest of various kinds constitute incapacitation. One way or another, this is a constitutional amendment that falls within the scope of the supreme authority of the Knesset, which is authorized to correct distortions in the law and to legislate arrangements, even if personal."
Recall that the attorney general joined the petitioners last month and also asked the High Court to strike down the law, while Netanyahu asked the High Court not to intervene. Netanyahu wrote at the time that the Incapacitation Law is an amendment to a Basic Law, and as such the court has no authority to intervene in it.
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