i24 News – The Knesset Presidium on Tuesday refused to include legislation baring a lawmaker charged with a serious crime from becoming prime minister alongside a bill to dissolve the Knesset, effectively killing the chances of the legislation passing.
Spearheaded by lawmaker Yevgeny Soba of Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman’s right-wing Yisrael Beytenu party, the bill would prevent opposition leader Bibi Netanyahu from forming a government.
Netanyahu is currently in court on corruption charges.
Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Liberman are pushing the bill to prevent Netanyahu from returning to power.
“The goal in the upcoming elections is clear: to prevent Netanyahu from returning to power and enslaving the state to his personal interests,” Sa’ar tweeted.
“Today’s election is the result of intrigue, lies and subversion by one man named Binyomin Netanyahu and the main goal in the upcoming elections is to prevent him from returning to power,” tweeted Liberman.
“I hope that along with the law to dissolve the Knesset, a law will also be passed on the criminal defendant, in order to prevent a criminal defendant from being a candidate for prime minister,” he added.
The Presidium denied a request to attach the bill to the upcoming vote to dissolve the Knesset. This means the bill needs to be submitted separately.
Soba and Liberman’s spokespersons said they are working to bring the bill to a vote as soon as possible, although they are unsure of their chances of success.
