Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party is fraught with tension regarding the “anti-Netanyahu” bill being advanced by New Hope chairman Gideon Sa’ar, which bars anyone indicted with a serious crime from serving as prime minister, Channel 12 News reported last week.

Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked has publicly expressed her opposition to the bill on many occasions and two other Yamina members, Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana and MK Nir Orbach, have also said they will oppose the bill.

Bennett himself is on record as opposing the bill, which is widely viewed as specifically aimed at keeping former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu from returning to power.

According to the report, the Yamina party’s director Stella Weinstein, who is close to Bennett, has threatened party members with “consequences” if they fail to refrain from commenting on the bill.

“I mamash request that you don’t act like those MKs and refrain from expressing your opinion on Sa’ar’s bill,” Weinstein wrote to Yamina members. “I personally promise that anyone who espouses their opinion will be banned from conducting interviews.”

According to the coalition agreements, every party within the coalition has the right to veto legislation. Shaked and Kahana don’t have a vote since they resigned from the Knesset in accordance with the Norwegian Law but they can convince their fellow party members to veto the bill.

Sa’ar told Channel 12 that Bennett approved his publication of the bill’s draft but has not committed to voting for the bill.

“To be fair, he hasn’t committed to what he’ll do in the later stages [of advancing the bill] but he agreed to the publication of the bill’s details,” Sa’ar said.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit defended the bill, saying on Thursday that “the bill isn’t personal.”

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— שי צ'רקה shay charka (@ShayCharka) October 22, 2021

Otzmat Yehudit chairman Itamar Ben-Gvir slammed Mandelblit for his statement. “The Attorney General’s statement that Gideon Saar’s bill is not personal is a mockery of the public’s intelligence. There is no doubt that this law was enacted to prevent Netanyahu from serving as prime minister.”

Sa’ar bill, which requires an amendment to Israel’s Basic Laws, would bar any Knesset member indicted for a crime that carries a minimum sentence of three years from forming a government.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)