Knesset can vote on Netanyahu immunity, legislature’s legal adviser says

If the Knesset House Committee is formed, it will have to vote on Netanyahu’s request immediately, Knesset Legal Adviser Eyal Yinon wrote.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Can he win again? Prime Minister and Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Can he win again? Prime Minister and Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
The Knesset can begin the process of voting on whether to grant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immunity from prosecution should MKs choose to do so, Knesset Legal Adviser Eyal Yinon determined Monday.
Despite Yinon’s ruling, most MKs are likely to oppose forming the House Committee that can vote on the matter.
Netanyahu has 30 days to request immunity after Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit submitted the prime minister’s indictment to Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein on Monday. Normally, the Knesset House Committee would hold a vote on the matter; however, because there is no government or coalition, the 22nd Knesset’s permanent committees, including the House Committee, have not been formed.
Yinon answered questions from several MKs in his ruling, in which he wrote: “At this time there is no legal requirement for the Knesset to establish the House Committee.”
However, he added, “if MKs think that, in light of the importance of the discussion of the immunity there is a reason to make an except to the accepted management of the Knesset” - namely, that permanent committees are not formed until there is a coalition - “and there is a majority in favor of establishing a permanent House Committee at this point, I do not think there is a legal prohibition against doing so.”
Another committee, like the temporary Knesset Arrangements Committee led by Blue and White MK Avi Nissenkorn, may not hold a vote on immunity.
If the House Committee is not formed in the coming days, and because a third election in a row seems likely at this point, a vote on Netanyahu’s immunity will likely be delayed five to six months, until an election takes place and a new government is formed. This will delay Netanyahu’s trial for all that time.
If the House Committee is formed, it will have to vote on Netanyahu’s request immediately, Yinon wrote.
Netanyahu would likely lose such a vote, because the right-wing bloc supporting him has 55 seats, and Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman said at last month’s Jerusalem Post conference that the prime minister should have his day in court.
However, Liberman said last week that he does not support establishing a House Committee at this time, which means there won’t be a majority to do so.
Meretz MK Tamar Zandberg, one of the lawmakers who wrote to Yinon, urged Liberman to change his position and support forming a committee.
If Liberman wants a unity government like he says he does, he must be willing to cast the deciding vote in this matter, Zandberg said.
Zandberg accused Netanyahu of wanting to call another election for the express purpose of delaying a vote on his immunity.
In the regular immunity request process, the House Committee must vote on whether to grant an MK immunity. If it votes yes, then another vote is held in the plenum.