Knesset rejects bills that would bar Netanyahu from being president

"We can't let it happen that Netanyahu, a man with three criminal indictments, will become president."

By GIL HOFFMAN
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (photo credit: REUTERS)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
(photo credit: REUTERS)
The Knesset plenum voted 37 to 30, 35 to 27 and 37 to 25 on Wednesday to reject three separate bills by the opposition that would prevent anyone under criminal indictment from running for president.
The bills were initiated by MKs Yoav Segalovich (Yesh Atid), Yulia Malinovsky (Yisrael Beytenu) and Merav Michaeli (Labor). The voting went according to coalition-opposition lines, except that most Blue and White and all Yamina MKs absented themselves from the votes.
The bills were intended to prevent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from running for president, in an election to succeed Reuven Rivlin that will be held by secret ballot in the Knesset in May.
“We can’t let it happen that Netanyahu, a man with three criminal indictments, will become president,” Michaeli said, as she proposed the bill.
Michaeli admitted that she knew the bill would not pass, but she said it would have to pass eventually, even if it won’t happen in the current Knesset.
Segalovich said that at a time when values were being ignored, what should be taken for granted must be passed into law.
Ministerial liaison to the Knesset David Amsalem, who responded on behalf of the government, chose to use his time to speak in general about alleged wrongdoing by the police and prosecution in Netanyahu’s cases, instead of speaking about the bill.
Netanyahu has never indicated that he would run for president, but there is speculation, because the president is immune from prosecution.
Segalovich reacted to his bill’s rejection by saying that “a black flag is now flying over the Knesset, after it enabled the President’s Residence to remain a shelter for criminals.”