President Isaac Herzog has the authority to remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power if the latter ignores a High Court ruling, Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman argued on Monday.
Basic Law: The President of the State says the president has the power to “carry out every responsibility assigned to him by law in connection with the appointment and removal from office of judges and other office holders.” Liberman interpreted the law as saying that the president officially appoints the prime minister and, therefore, has the power to dismiss him.
Liberman, at a press conference ahead of his party’s weekly faction meeting, presented a cartoon drawing of a bomb with a red line running horizontally near the top. The word “Democracy” appeared below the line, and the word “Dictatorship” appeared above it.
The cartoon was a reference to a similar prop used by Netanyahu at the UN in 2012 to demonstrate that Iran was nearing a nuclear bomb. Liberman argued that not respecting a High Court ruling would be the crossing of the red line, after which Israel would cease to be a democracy.
Far-reaching interpretation
Israel Democracy Institute research fellow Dana Blander said Liberman’s interpretation was “far-reaching.” The president can apply his authority in cases where the law permits it, but there was no law that gave the president the power to remove the prime minister from his position, Blander explained.
Liberman’s comments came after some ministers called on Netanyahu not to respect a High Court directive to freeze the government’s decision to fire Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Ronen Bar. The Yisrael Beytenu chair said Herzog should encourage the Shin Bet to “act decisively and do everything possible to preserve the democratic regime and its institutions in the State of Israel.”
He added, “We must remember that every officeholder and all state institutions must remain loyal to the kingdom, not the king. The moment this changes, democracy turns into dictatorship, and we will prevent that.”
The Democrats chairman Yair Golan also directed comments during his weekly press conference to Herzog. Golan, who held the press conference in a protest tent outside of the Knesset, called on the president to “pick a side.”
“The danger to Israeli democracy is clear and immediate,” he said. “We are in the era of decisions; this is not [just] a schism, and there is no balance – there is a dangerous, harmful government destroying the state, and there are people fighting to save it. And you, as citizen number one, must choose a side – are you with the government or with the people and democracy?”