Israel split over law giving PM immunity

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that he is “not interested” in a new law which could provide immunity for serving premiers and could help him during two ongoing investigations.

“Regarding the French Law, I am stating here clearly: I am not interested in any law relating to ongoing investigations involving me or ones that don’t relate to me,” the prime minister said at a meeting of Likud ministers, in his first public statement on the initiative. Last week he declined repeated requests to comment on the proposal.

Netanyahu’s comments came after the infighting over the law among the ruling coalition heated up as the Coalition Chairman David Bitan, from the Likud, said he would advance the bill despite the opposition of the Jewish Home party, the Times of Israel reported.

However, Likud ministers Ze’ev Elkin and Yuval Steinitz strongly criticised Bitan’s handling of the bill during the meeting of the party’s ministers yesterday, the paper added, noting that the ministers accused Bitan of endangering the coalition.

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Bitan accused the Jewish Home party of violating an agreement to support the bill, however he was told to solve the matter behind closed doors.

In an interview with the Israeli Army Radio, Bitan said that the Jewish Home was using the tension surrounding the bill for “public relations, at the expense of Likud”.

As a result of the ongoing coalition crisis over the bill, a ministerial panel whose job is to fast-track legislation through the Knesset did not convene for the second week in a row.