Netanyahu’s top challenger Gantz vows to amend immunity law

“The use of the immunity law has gotten out of proportion…this was not the intention of [granting] the immunity,” said Gantz.

By World Israel News Staff 

Blue and White leader MK Benny Gantz says that if his party leads the next government following the March 2020 election, it would act to amend the immunity law, reports Israel Hayom.

The issue of parliamentary immunity was a contentious point during last-ditch efforts to form a unity government of both Blue and White and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, as Netanyahu is to be indicted on charges relating to three cases of alleged corruption.

As a condition for cooperating with the Likud in a government, Blue and White was calling on Netanyahu to pledge that he would not exercise his right to request immunity. Netanyahu refused.

Gantz charges that the incumbent prime minister’s alleged involvement in bribery, fraud, and breach of trust was not carried out in the context of fulfilling his responsibilities as an elected official.

Speaking as the Knesset was legislating a third parliamentary election within a year, Gantz argued, as quoted by Israel Hayom, that “the use of the immunity law has gotten out of proportion…this was not the intention of [granting] the immunity.”

It was meant for legislators “to carry out their jobs,” he continued, referring to the legal point that MKs have a certain amount of leeway to violate the law in order to carry out their responsibilities and promote their political agenda. Netanyahu is accused of receiving or giving favors in exchange for his own gain and that of wealthy and influential individuals.

Gantz vowed to work to ensure that the law would be used in the future “only for what it was meant.”

Netanyahu has countered that the allegations leveled against him are an attempt through legal channels to topple him politically.