Israel’s Parliament passed legislation early Thursday that would make it more difficult to declare prime ministers incapacitated and remove them from office, a move that critics said was aimed at protecting the country’s leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption.
Under the legislation, the latest in a series of divisive bills pursued by the government, a sitting prime minister could only be declared incapacitated on physical or mental health grounds.
The bill, passed by a bare majority of 61 in the 120-seat Parliament, came just before tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets for another stormy day of protest against the government plan for a broad overhaul of the judiciary.
Opponents of the plan, which would give the government more control over judicial appointments and weaken the Supreme Court by severely restricting judicial review of legislation, say that it would subvert the country’s democratic system.
The bill passed on Thursday detailed more exactly the grounds upon which a prime minister could be removed. Previously, the law did not specify what constituted incapacity or the basis upon which incapacity could be declared, though it did imply that reasons other than health could be used.
Israel’s New Far-Right Government
Benjamin Netanyahu has returned to power at the helm of the most right-wing and religiously conservative administration ever in Israeli history.
The new bill takes the power of removal out of the hands of the attorney general and the court and puts it in the hands of Parliament. If a prime minister were unwilling to be removed from office, even temporarily, a vote of three-quarters of cabinet ministers and a supermajority of 80 lawmakers would be required.
Mr. Netanyahu went on trial in 2021 after his indictment on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
The attorney general has barred him from involvement in the plans for the judicial overhaul, citing a conflict of interest. Critics of the proposed judicial changes have accused Mr. Netanyahu of promoting them as a means of extricating himself from his legal troubles. Mr. Netanyahu has denied any such intentions.
The so-called incapacitation law is the latest in a slew of contentious legislation being advanced by Mr. Netanyahu’s three-month-old government — the most right-wing and religiously conservative in Israel’s history — and it is likely to be challenged in the Supreme Court. That could lead Israel closer to a constitutional crisis, and bring the government into direct confrontation with the courts.
“Like thieves in the night, the coalition has now passed an obscene and corrupt personal law,” the centrist leader of the opposition, Yair Lapid, said of the latest legislation.
The legislation passed on Thursday, an amendment to an existing law, is not part of the core package of the overhaul plan, but it is related.
Some opponents of the judicial overhaul have argued that Mr. Netanyahu is inherently in a conflict of interest because of his corruption trial and have called on the attorney general to remove him. There has been no indication that the attorney general intended, or even had the clear authority, to take any such action.
The new bill feeds the widespread public anger about the proposed judicial changes. The core of that legislation is aimed at giving the government more influence in the choice of new judges, and it would severely restrict the Supreme Court’s ability to strike down laws, practically ending judicial review, while allowing Parliament to override court decisions with a bare majority of 61.
Its supporters say change is essential to restore a correct balance of power between the elected government and an overactive judiciary that has granted itself increased authority over the years. Opponents say the proposed changes will remove any check on government power and any protection for minorities, and will lead to rule by the majority.
The planned day of protest on Thursday, which organizers called a day of “national paralysis,” involves a growing circle of Israelis from different walks of life. Thousands of demonstrators blocked major highways around the country. The police in Tel Aviv turned a water cannon on protesters who had blocked a main road for hours.
A group of surgeons protested by occupying helipads around the coastal town of Caesarea, where Mr. Netanyahu and his family have a luxury private home. The protesters marched in a circle with flags surrounded by large banners reading, “Fighting for democracy” and “One must resist dictatorship,” according to drone footage distributed by the demonstration’s organizers.
Elsewhere, navy veterans blocked an entrance to the port in Ashdod with burning tires, staff and retirees of Israel’s military industries protested outside a weapons manufacturer in northern Israel, and groups showed up outside lawmakers’ homes around the country and blocked access to a site near Ben-Gurion International Airport, where government ministers were scheduled to attend a ceremony.
Later Thursday, protesters planned to march to Bnei Brak, a Tel Aviv suburb predominantly inhabited by ultra-Orthodox Jews, in a move that could lead to clashes with the police or local residents. Ultra-Orthodox members of the government are vehement supporters of the judicial overhaul and have long despised the Supreme Court, which has struck down legislation aimed at formalizing mass exemptions of ultra-Orthodox men from obligatory military service.
