Drama at the hearing: The representative of the attorney general, Aner Helman, claimed today (Thursday) before the panel of judges during the hearing that he does not have the authority to take Netanyahu to prison.
President Hayut asked Baharav-Miara's representative: "Sir, the attorney general sees eye to eye with the Prime Minister regarding the fact that due to a violation of a conflict of interest, a sitting Prime Minister can not be removed."
In response, Helman replied to the president's claim: "She does not believe that the violation of the conflict of interest arrangement leads to impunity." He also added: "Since then never has the legal advisor to the government had the authority to declare the prime minister's incapacity. According to the law, the one who determines that the prime minister's incapacity is the government and not the prosecutor."
The chairman of the coalition and the initiator of the amendment to the fortification law, MK Ofir Katz, referred earlier to the judges' claims that there is room for interpretation regarding the applicability of the law, whether it will enter into force now or from the next Knesset. According to him: "As the initiator of the bill and the chairman of the committee that managed the legislative process, I and the members of the committee had no shadow of a doubt that we are legislating an arrangement that will apply immediately. There is no room for an interpretation that is contrary to our express position."
During the hearing, attorney Michael Rabilo, who independently represents the government's position, scolded the judges: "There was a vote on Lapid's reservation that demanded the law be applied only from the next term and it was rejected 62-44, you are not about to vote on fourth reading in the Knesset."
He also said: "The personalism you claim is no less serious than the personalism in the legislation of the replacement government (Netanyahu-Ganz government). It was then established that a prime minister cannot fire certain ministers. The High Court approved the law."