Mandelblit Hits PM Immunity Bill Again

The debate over a bill to provide immunity from prosecution to a sitting prime minister continued on Tuesday as Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit spoke out for the second consecutive day against the proposal.

“The job of prime minister, the most important job in the country, will turn into a sanctuary city for criminals,” Mandelblit warned at a meeting of the Kohelet Forum think-tank. “And, truth be told, the fact that it has to be explained why this is unacceptable is, in of itself, unacceptable.”

Although the bill sponsored by Likud MK David Amsalem has bogged down due to a split over it within the coalition, coalition chairman David Bitan (Likud) has reportedly insisted that the Jewish Home and Kulanu fall into line and support passage.

A day after the attorney general condemned the bill as “absurd,” “wrong” and “inappropriate,” he tore into it again, describing a scenario that would be ruinous to Israeli democracy:

“According to the bill, theoretically, even if there is unequivocal evidence that the serving prime minister paid — before his election — a bribe to another person, or received a bribe from someone else in his role as prime minister, an investigation will not be opened during his term in office,” he said.

“This would be a massive blow to the rule of law, the principle of equality before the law, and public trust.

“One possible outcome is that a serving prime minister will become enveloped in a spreading, amorphous cloud of suspicions. Worse, it is possible that the partners in crime of that theoretical prime minister will be investigated and even convicted, in a manner that clearly implicates him in the offense, while he continues to serve in the role for a significant period of several years. By the time those years are up at the completion of his term, when police are permitted to investigate the suspect, will there still be evidence to gather that has not yet been contaminated or disappeared?

“In a democratic country the rule of law is the same for every person — from the simple citizen up to the prime minister. That is how it was, and it is appropriate that it should continue to be so,” Mandelblit said.

Meanwhile, Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett told Army Radio on Tuesday morning that he has yet to reach a decision on whether or not to support the bill.

“The bill has pros and cons. I understand the need for an elected official to be free of legal harassment… Half the people in our faction oppose the bill, because of the personal connection to the prime minister. Even if the bill is worthy, it shouldn’t be brought up while investigations are ongoing,” he said, referring to multiple investigations into Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his associates. According to media reports, Netanyahu is expected to be questioned by police in connection with the corruption probes in the next few days.