High Court to NGO: Don’t jump the gun on firing Netanyahu

High Court of Justice Judge Menachem Mazuz told an NGO Thursday evening that it had jumped the gun in asking the court to fire Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, following Thursday’s decision by Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit to issue a final indictment against him for public corruption.

Mazuz’s ruling does not mean that Netanyahu is out of the woods as much as it means that the NGO, the Movement for Quality  Government in Israel, will need to check in with Mandelblit about what actions he may take regarding the prime minister before the petition can proceed.

Further, the movement will need to double-check with Netanyahu about whether reports are accurate that he will relinquish side ministries he currently holds.

Earlier Thursday, the NGO became the first to file such a petition, with the Labor Party and others vowing to do the same in the near future.

Although the dry law of Knesset statutes only requires a prime minister to resign if convicted and after all appeals have been exhausted, it has been expected that various groups would seek to force his resignation based on a decades-old judge-made law requiring ministers to resign upon indictment.

In the petition, the movement said: “Woe to us if a prime minister under indictment drags the entire State of Israel down with him into the court room.”

In parallel to the High Court petition, a number of groups are trying to get Mandelblit and the state prosecution to intervene even before the High Court gets involved – hoping that the attorney-general will ask or instruct Netanyahu to resign or tell the prime minister that he is unfit to run for reelection.

This seems to be the focus of Mazuz’s ruling – that no petition should be filed before Mandelblit has published his opinion on the issue.

Besides the differing interpretations about whether a prime minister needs to resign, the law does not specifically address whether a serving prime minister can run for reelection once under indictment.

Another option would be for Mandelblit or the High Court to encourage or direct Netanyahu to declare himself temporarily incapacitated until the public corruption case is resolved.

The attorney-general himself is undecided at this point about what to do, but he and his top aides are consulting on the issue.

In the past, The Jerusalem Post received indications that Mandelblit believed Netanyahu would end up having to resign if indicted specifically for bribery, while he might not have had to resign if indicted for only fraud and breach of public trust.

Ultimately, Mandelblit’s charges against Netanyahu included a bribery charge.

In public statements, Mandelblit has said that all of these legal issues are unsettled – meaning there are multiple interpretations one could make – and that he would only form a concrete view if and when an indictment was issued.

At the same time, he issued a final indictment months ago against Haim Katz, but has not forced him to resign from the Knesset or begun his trial. Rather, he has only forced him to resign as a minister.

With the Knesset out of session for an extended period, there is speculation that Netanyahu and Katz could delay their trials until after a new Knesset reconvenes, since the immunity of Knesset members is usually removed by a Knesset committee.

However, there are interpretations that under the current circumstances, the immunity could be waived in various ad hoc processes.

There is also speculation that even if Mandelblit personally believes that Netanyahu should resign, he will not want to be the official who forces him out early, preferring to leave the decision to the courts or to the political process.

If Netanyahu resigns his additional ministries, that would open up the top positions in the Health, Social Welfare and Diaspora Affairs ministries, as well as the position of acting agricultural minister.