“The hearing taking place today is practically an [attempted] annulment of election results,” said Justice Minister Yariv Levin in a statement on Thursday morning before the High Court incapacitation law postponement hearing.
The High Court of Justice is scheduled to hear arguments on Thursday on whether the incapacitation law’s application should be delayed until the next Knesset.
Petitions had called for the striking of the law, which modified the conditions for the procedure to declare a prime minister unfit for service. With the passing of the amendment on March 23, a prime minister could only be removed from office through the incapacitation procedure for medical reasons.
Trying to impeach the prime minister
“The petitioners are actually trying to impeach Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu,” Levin claimed on Thursday morning, “in order to put an end to right-wing rule.”
“They failed at the ballot box, and now they want to cancel election results.”
The law was an abuse of the Knesset’s constituent authority, the petitioners argued, because the legislation was passed with the intent of improving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s legal position regarding the violation of his corruption trial’s conflict-of-interest agreement.
Michael Starr contributed to this report.