As in the High Court's decision to invalidate the law to reduce the cause of reasonableness this week, in the decision on the law on the incapacitation law, which was postponed to the next Knesset, the Supreme Court justices were divided in their opinion, and this time, too, the decision was by only one vote.
According to former Supreme Court President Esther Hayut, the incapacitation law is personal, and therefore she decided to support its rejection: "An examination of the totality of the circumstances indicates that about a hundred witnesses indicate that the main purpose for which the amendment was enacted, looking forward, is to provide a response to a concrete legal risk that threatened, in the view of the amendment's legislators, a serving prime minister."
Judge Noam Solberg (Archive), Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
On the other hand, Justice Noam Sohlberg argued that the law is impersonal and can be put into effect in the current Knesset: "We were found to effectively nullify a Basic Law, on the basis of a vote, while the majority system can also reach the same result through interpretation. This is contrary to Jewish law. The amendment passed the test and is not personal."
Along with Solberg, the minority opinion also included Justices Mintz and Elron, who disagreed with the claims that the law is personal and the claims that authority was abused. According to them, the law is intended to establish a general arrangement regarding the manner in which an incumbent prime minister becomes incapacitated.
Justice Alex Stein, who also opposed rejecting the law as part of the minority opinion, also ruled that the incapacitation law was impersonal. Likewise, Justice Willner, who was also a member of the minority opinion, was of the opinion that the generality requirement concerns the application of the norm, and not personal personal considerations that Knesset members faced at the time of the legislation, and since its application is general, it meets the requirements and is not personal.
Judge Alex Stein, Photo: Herzi Shapira
Incapacitation - only due to a medical problem
About 10 months ago, the Knesset plenum approved the proposed Basic Law: The Government (Amendment No. 61) by MK Ofir Katz and a group of Knesset members by a majority of Knesset members by 47 to 12 against.
According to the law, it is proposed to determine that the Prime Minister's temporary inability to fulfill his duties will be due to physical or mental incapacity only, and will be determined by the Prime Minister by notification to the Government and the Speaker of the Knesset and with the approval of the Knesset Committee by a majority of 2/3 of its members.
Prime Minister Netanyahu, Photo: GPO
In addition, the government will also be entitled to decide by a majority of 3/4 of its members that the prime minister is temporarily unable to fulfill his duties due to physical or mental incapacity; In such a case, the government will be convened by the prime minister at the request of 3/5 of the members of the government, and the prime minister will have to convene the government within three days from the date of submission of the request or at a later date if requested in the request.
If the cabinet meeting is not convened within three days, the cabinet secretary will convene the cabinet immediately and the acting prime minister will preside over the meeting. The Government's decision in this case shall remain in force for three days and shall be submitted to the Knesset Committee for approval by a majority of 2/3 of its members, and if the Government's decision was made for health reasons, the Knesset Committee's decision shall also be based on a medical opinion and the Knesset Committee shall be entitled to determine that the incapacitation shall continue for no more than seven days from the date of the Government's decision. It is also proposed that if the prime minister does not submit a medical opinion in accordance with the rules set by the Knesset committee, he will be deemed to have announced his incapacitation.
Wrong? We'll fix it! If you find a mistake in the article, please share with us