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| Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara surrounded by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ministers |
Two recent confrontations between Israel’s judiciary establishment and democratically-elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appear to be separate attempts to declare the PM unfit to serve, or incapacitated. One was the Jerusalem court’s decision to deny Netanyahu the delay he requested before testifying in his own trial; the other was a demand from the AG that Netanyahu fire National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
In early February 2023, when the civil war over judicial reform was at its height, the High Court of Justice ordered Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and Netanyahu to respond to the petition of the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, which demanded that Netanyahu be declared incapacitated for his involvement in the judicial reform.
According to the Knesset website, “incapacitated” describes a situation where a government official cannot fulfill his duties for certain reasons. The lack of ability to fulfill these duties can be temporary if the office bearer will return to fulfill his position, or permanent if it is clear that the office bearer will not return to fulfill his duties.
Regarding the incapacity of the Prime Minister, Article 16 of the Basic Law: The Government establishes instructions regarding the filling of the position of the Prime Minister. According to section (a), if the prime minister is absent from the country, his deputy will call the government meetings and preside over them. According to section (b), if the Prime Minister is temporarily unable to fulfill his duties, the Acting Prime Minister will take his place. If 100 consecutive days have passed in which the acting prime minister served instead of the prime minister, the prime minister is considered to be permanently prevented from fulfilling his duties. According to Article 20(b) of the Basic Law, if the Prime Minister is prevented from fulfilling his duties permanently, the government is considered to have resigned on the 101st day on which the Acting Prime Minister holds office.
And that, folks, is how a judicial Coup D’état happens in Israel. The good government folks didn’t come up with the idea on their own. The move was clearly manufactured by the AG. Earlier in February 2023, Baharav-Miara ordered Netanyahu to refrain from interfering with changes in the judicial system due to his conflict of interest because of his trial. This was based on the 11-0 High Court decision to allow Netanyahu to run for the Knesset and become prime minister as long as he did not engage in issues having to do with his corruption trial.






