The Blue and White party confirmed on Wednesday that it was seeking a majority to support a law banning a prime minister with indictments from serving in an attempt to prevent Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu from forming a government.

With 99% of the votes counted, the right-wing bloc has 58 seats which means that the parties opposing Netanyahu – Blue and White, Labor-Gesher-Meretz, Arab Joint List and Yisrael Beiteinu – will form a majority in the next Knesset.

It is unclear if passing a law to bar a prime ministerial candidate is even currently possible under a caretaker government but Gantz has already reportedly made a decision to file the law immediately after the 23rd Knesset is sworn in on March 16th.

The Arab Joint List and some senior members of Labor-Gesher-Meretz expressed support for the law on Wednesday but Yisrael Beiteinu remained silent on the issue. Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Liberman was opposed to the law when Gantz proposed it after the September election when the indictments were only pending but it is possible that he may support it this time, especially since Netanyahu has since been officially indicted.

Yamina leader Naftali Bennett slammed the proposed law, writing: “The initiative for the legislation to disqualify Netanyahu is an extreme anti-democratic move which spits in the face of half of the country. Elections were two days ago and they are already trying to bypass the will of the people with illicit means.”

“Yemina will completely oppose this move and fight against it with all its might.”

Later, in a surprising twist, Labor MK Omer Bar-Lev came out against passing a law preventing Netanyahu from forming a government, saying: “I fought against laws based on personal considerations when they benefitted Netanyahu and I’m against an initiative to legislate a law for personal considerations against him. This is not the way to replace Netanyahu.”

Bar-Lev added that “the only way is to establish a minority government led by Gantz with the support of the Arab Joint List and Liberman.”

Meanwhile on Wednesday, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel to disqualify Netanyahu from forming a government for the next Knesset, commenting that the appeal was filed before the final results of the elections were even published.

The Movement for Quality of Government in Israel stated that it would resubmit the appeal following the publication of the final elections results.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)