Former prime minister Ehud Olmert does not respect the rule of law and his
return to politics would be destructive, Labor chairwoman Shelly Yacimovich said
on Wednesday.
“There’s intense discussion on whether or not a person who
was convicted of a crime will return. He is still sitting on the accused’s bench
in another trial, and there’s an appeal against him on the crimes for which he
was acquitted,” Yacimovich said of Olmert.
As prime minister, she added,
Olmert “ran a wild battle against the law, the courts, the police, the Attorney-
General’s Office and the state comptroller.
“Whoever lets a person like
this enter the political system is cooperating with its destruction and
defilement,” Yacimovich said.
The Labor leader was speaking at a
conference at Tel Aviv University on electoral reform, sponsored by Yesh Sikuy,
Citizen Empowerment Center – Israel and Save Israeli
Democracy.
Yacimovich was met with boos after she started her speech by
saying she opposes changing the governmental system and that the values and
actions of politicians are more important.
“Nothing is more popular than
talking about changing the system. People are always talking about how it must
be changed now,” she said. “Something went wrong here, but it is not the
system. The floor isn’t crooked; the dancers just aren’t that
great.”
The Labor chairwoman explained that the current system allows a
wide range of action, and the problem is not “governance, but the people
governing.”