Dozens of hi-tech officials ask High Court to fire Netanyahu
The petition runs parallel to one already filed by the Movement for the Quality of Government in Israel to the High Court and an expected future petition by the Labor Party.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the media at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem(photo credit: RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS)
Dozens of hi-tech officials opened a new front on Sunday in the legal battle to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, filing a petition to the High Court of Justice.The petition runs parallel to one already filed by the Movement for the Quality of Government in Israel to the High Court and an expected future petition by the Labor Party.What chance does even a group of top officials in the hi-tech industry have of turning the dial on this issue?Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit has already made it clear that he is not interested in personally being the hand that forces Netanyahu out of office.He has made legal arguments protecting Netanyahu from being forced out by two legal grounds of attack, while postponing indefinitely analyzing whether Netanyahu can form a new government now that he has been indicted for bribery.Mandelblit has ruled that the issue can be kicked down the road because it is only theoretical.Until Netanyahu is actually in a position in which he has the support of 61 MKs – something that may never happen, or in any event, is more than three months off given that a third election is imminent – Mandelblit said there is no reason to rule on it.What is unique about the latest petition, besides that it involves a group of generally apolitical hi-tech officials, is that they specifically have attacked this theoretical argument.They say that the issue is concrete, and not theoretical, because voters should know whether Netanyahu has the legal capacity to form a new government before they decide how to vote.Some of the leading hi-tech officials involved include: Dr. Orna Bari, Shai Weiningar, Pinhas Buchris, Dov Moran Eyal Gora, Yehoshua Sobol and Prof. Dani Tzidon. They are represented by lawyer Daphna Holech-Lechner, who has been involved in other large High Court cases.Also, on Sunday the state filed a legal brief in the dispute before the High Court about whether the police will be allowed to hack the telephones of Ofer Golan and Yonatan Orich, top spokesmen for Netanyahu.
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