Israel’s Knesset early on Thursday morning passed the Incapacitation Law, that hampers the Supreme Court’s ability to require the prime minister to take a leave of absence. The bill passed its second and third readings by a vote of 61-47, the minimum number required for passage, in a plenum session that lasted all night until 6 am on Thursday. The law states that a sitting prime minister can only be declared unfit and be forced to step down three-quarters of government ministers say that he or she must for physical or psychological reasons.
The bill, an amendment to Basic Law: The Government, was fast-tracked for passage, and is seen by the opposition as being created to prevent Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu from being ordered by the Supreme Court to take a leave of absence as the Knesset works to pass judicial reform legislation while Netanyahu is on trial for corruption.
The bill was introduced after a petition was filed to Attorney General Gali Baharv-Miara asking her to declare Netanyahu incapable of serving as prime minister due to a conflict-of-interest, that would prevent him from engaging in anything that can affect his ongoing corruption trial, such as the government’s proposed judicial reforms.