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The Interior Committee voted 6 – 9 on Monday in favor of the MK David Amsalem's (Likud) proposed "recommendations bill" that would block the police from offering its recommendation on whether a certain investigation has enough evidence to indict. The next step is to bring it to a first in a series of Knesset votes, to take place later on Monday.
The committee's discussion was far from civil, with members of the opposition battling against the bill and members of Likud in favor of it. Finance Minister and coalition member Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu), who originally opposed having the bill retroactively apply to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's current corruption investigations, removed his objection.
As a result, if the bill does pass, it could bar the police from recommending the Netanyahu be indicted.
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Shouting in the committee (L to R: opposition MKs Mickey Levy, Miki Rosenthal and Tamar Zandberg)
(צילום: יואב דודקביץ')
Another hurdle was removed last Wednesday, when Coalition Chairman MK David Bitan (Likud) deposed fellow party member MK Benny Begin from the Interior Affairs Committee, over Begin's refusal to toe the party line and vote in favor of the recommendations bill.
Like Kahlon, Begin's refusal stemmed from the bill's aim to apply retroactively to the current investigations against Netanyahu. After removing him from the committee, Bitan then took his place, in what would become a successful effort to guarantee a majority vote in favor of it.
The recommendations bill, which is also opposed by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit ,would prevent the police from offering its opinion in instances when the investigation includes an attorney, with the official reason being that they would be the best authority to decide the case's chance of winning an indictment. The bill also states that if a leak in such a case occurs, the leaker would face a year in prison.
The newer version of the bill states that even when an attorney is already on the case, the attorney general could nevertheless requests that the police issue its recommendations.
The police could also offer recommendations in any instance where it is decided to close the case.
During the committee's session, Amsalem stressed that "If the attorney general will ask for (police—ed) recommendations on the prime minister's investigations, he'll get them."
When asked what the Prime Minister's Office's Chief of Staff, Yoav Horowitz, was doing in his office prior to the session, Amsalem replied, "He was making schnitzels and salad."
Opposition MK Dov Hanin (Joint List) voiced his objection to the bill. "The public has the right to know what the police thinks. The norm should refer to its publication, and not to punishing whoever leaks it."
Hanin directed his criticism directly to the bill's promoter, Amsalem. "What's going on here is one of the most brilliant moves ever, Dudi, it really is." Not to be outdone, Amsalem facetiously replied, "Are you really crediting me with such cleverness?"
Hanin and additional members of the committee further objected to Amsalem's latest draft of the bill, saying that in adding a clause that prohibits leaks of the police's recommendations, the bill's essence has changed, and as such the committee should be allowed to review it further.
"You don't have faith in the attorney general," said opposition MK Mickey Levy (Yesh Atid). "You're covering for the prime minister."
Opposition MK Tamar Zandberg (Meretz) attacked MKs from coalition party Kulanu, for supposedly staking the higher moral ground by first objecting to the bill's retroactive application, only to have their leader, Kahlon, eventually agree to the clause.
"This is where you fold," Zandberg told them. "You've appointed yourselves the gatekeepers, you've dragged the entire country and government and the Knesset here and in the end, not only did you not compromise, you completely folded. At the very least, don't pretend to be defenders of the law and its gatekeepers, when in the end you fold and allow this corrupt law to defend the prime minister."
Kulanu MK Roy Folkman responded to Zandberg's accusations by saying that "it clearly states that recommendations could be submitted, it's blatantly written here that the AG could do so if he wants."
First published: 15:08, 11.27.17