TEL AVIV: An Israeli good governance group on Sunday asked the country’s Supreme Court to punish PM Benjamin Netanyahu for allegedly violating a conflict of interest agreement meant to prevent him from dealing with the country’s judiciary while he is on trial for corruption.
The request by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel intensifies a brewing showdown between Netanyahu’s government and the judiciary, which it is trying to overhaul in a contentious plan that has sparked widespread opposition. The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, a fierce opponent of the overhaul, asked the court to force Netanyahu to obey the law and sanction him either with a fine or prison time for not doing so, saying he was not above the law.
“A PM who doesn’t obey the court and the provisions of the law is privileged and an anarchist,” said Eliad Shraga, the head of the group, echoing the language used by Netanyahu and his allies against opponents of the overhaul.
Netanyahu is barred by the country’s attorney general from dealing with his government’s plan to overhaul the judiciary, based on a conflict of interest agreement he is bound to, and which the Supreme Court acknowledged in a ruling over Netanyahu’s fitness to serve while on trial for corruption. But on Thursday, after parliament passed a law making it harder to remove a sitting PM, Netanyahu said he was unshackled by the attorney general’s decision and vowed to wade into the crisis and “mend the rift”. That declaration prompted attorney general Gali Baharav-Miara to warn that Netanyahu was breaking his conflict of interest agreement by entering the fray.