In Israel, COVID-19 has hit ultra-Orthodox Jews particularly hard. Now the country’s Ultra-Orthodox health minister Yaakov Litzman has infected himself, likely due to not complying with his own regulations.

Israel’s Battle Against Coronavirus

In some parts of Israel, coronavirus contagion has become quite severe. Recently, the Israeli government quarantined the mostly ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, which serves as a prime example of why the country’s most religious have become the most likely and at-risk COVID-19 victims. Neighborhoods and cities with a high proportion of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel have a far above-average infection rate compared to the rest of the country. In fact, the ultra-Orthodox currently represent half of all those infected with the virus in hospitals, even though the group only makes up twelve percent of Israel’s total population.

Ultra-Orthodox Told to Stay Away from Services

The Ultra-Orthodox themselves are not blameless in this situation. Synagogues and religious educational institutions remained open for a very long time, also at the request of rabbis in charge of deciding that. Meanwhile, other churches and even schools had already closed in the rest of the country. Only after the pressure from the authorities became too severe health minister Litzman called on his fellow Orthodox Jews to stay away from services.

Now, with a few exceptions, most of Israel’s Orthodox are adhering to the guidelines. Accordingly, synagogues and even the quorum, which is otherwise a must for Orthodox believers, are now all closed down.

Calls for Litzman to Resign: ‘Endangering the Health of All Citizens of Israel’

Litzman himself was nevertheless heavily criticized and was even asked to resign by many in the secular media. Also, the leader of the opposition nationalist party Yisrael Beitenu Avigdor Lieberman accused the ultra-Orthodox leadership and Litzman of acting irresponsibly and “endangering the health of all citizens of Israel.” The reason for the criticism of Litzman is not least due to the fact that he infected himself. Contrary to his own provisions, he continued to pray in a synagogue, where he was exposed to the virus.

Meanwhile, both Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have backed the Ultra-Orthodox. Netanyahu demanded that citizens respect their beliefs and said there should be no agitation against them. However, Netanyahu’s call is also clearly self-interested, since Litzman and his United Torah Judaism party are, after all, an important coalition partner of Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc in the Knesset.

It is not the first time that special treatment has been applied, however. Israel was quick to close its borders after the start of the pandemic, but there were still special regulations within the country for the Ultra-Orthodox ⁠— primarily through Litzman’s influence and policies to ensure that their tight-knit community life and worship services did not further spread the disease.

Netanyahu Puts in Place Tougher Restrictions

On Monday, April 6, Netanyahu announced tighter restrictions for all Israelis prior to the Jewish Passover festival that began on Wednesday. Travel between cities was banned and Israelis have not been allowed to leave their homes since last Wednesday. With these actions, it is not only the Ultra-Orthodox who have restricted their activities and freedom of movement but the whole of Israel. As the Minister of the Interior Aryeh Deri explained it: everyone should be celebrating the festival “at home with the immediate family.”

According to Lieberman, on the other hand, the expansion of the measures from the Ultra-Orthodox to the entire country was simply a way of “appeasing” the group by indicating that a measure directed primarily against Ultra-Orthodox was now applied to the entire country.

Meanwhile, the Israeli Defense Forces Chief of the General Staff Aviv Kochavi has tried to convince Netanyahu to hand responsibility for dealing with the pandemic to the Israeli military. The military and its leadership appear to be dissatisfied with the government’s actions to date. A decision in this regard is still pending, however, and rather unlikely, at least until a new Israeli government has been formed. To date, more than eleven thousand people have been infected in Israel, 113 of whom have died and 1,689 of whom have recovered.

L'articolo Israel’s Orthodox Community is Struggling With COVID-19 proviene da InsideOver.

On the first day of the new year, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, formally wrote to the Speaker of the Knesset, to request for immunity from prosecution following his indictment with bribery, fraud and breach of trust.

In his letter, Netanyahu claimed the indictments against him were discriminatory and, dishonest and that legal proceedings against him would cause substantive damage to the functioning of the Knesset and representation of the voting public.

“To continue to lead to great achievements, I intend to approach the speaker of the Knesset in accordance with Chapter 4C of the law, in order to fulfil my right, my duty and my mission to continue to serve you for the future of Israel,” he said in a televised address.

Among those who criticised Netanyahu’s move was his main political rival Benny Gantz who said, “I never imagined that we would see the day that the Prime Minister of Israel would avoid standing before the law and the justice system.”

However, Netanyahu defended his request for immunity saying, “The law is meant to ensure that elected officials can serve the people according to the will of the people.”

So what’s next after Netanyahu’s request?

According to the current system, Netanyahu just like any other member of the Knesset does not enjoy automatic immunity. Instead, should the Prime Minister or any other member of the Knesset be indicted, a request for immunity has to be made through the Knesset House Committee, and the decision presented to the Knesset for a vote.

This is according to the immunity law which states that: “The Knesset will not make such a decision (concerning immunity) unless according to the proposal of the House Committee following a request brought before the committee.”

At the moment, Netanyahu’s request will remain in suspense since there’s no House Committee to consider his request following the dissolution of parliament in September last year.

Some lawmakers had earlier on suggested that the temporary Arrangement Knesset Committee formed after every election should consider Netanyahu’s request. But Knesset’s legal advisor Eyal Yinnon argued that an “Arrangement Committee cannot take on any of the legal powers given to the House Committee, because it is a temporary body with limited mandate.”

The absence of the House Committee also means that Netanyahu’s indictment charges cannot be lodged in the court at Jerusalem.

If a new coalition and a new government are formed after the elections slated for March this year, a House Committee formed as part of the broader coalition negotiations would then consider the request. If the House Committee rejects the request, then its decision would be final.

But if it agrees to grant him immunity, the matter would be presented to the Knesset for a vote. But still, even if Netanyahu is granted immunity, the Attorney General can file indictment again. At the same time Netanyahu could also ask for immunity again. It is a virtual circle.

Many analysts, however, believe that it is highly unlikely that Netanyahu will be granted immunity. This comes hot on the heels of an opinion poll which showed that 51 per cent of Israeli’s respondents opposed immunity while 33 per cent supported it.

Ever since charges against Netanyahu were floated, there have been concerted efforts by him and his allies to protect him from prosecution. In this regard, they had proposed controversial laws which they had hoped to pass in the Knesset.

One of the bills was to restore the immunity law to its previous state before 2005. The former law on immunity gave the Prime Minister and other members of the Knesset automatic immunity from prosecution. Also, in the instance that the attorney general wanted to lift immunity, then he had to make a request to the Knesset House Committee, which would then vote to decide the matter. The committee’s decision would then be ratified by a Knesset vote.

Netanyahu although supporting the bill, was forced to retreat following backlash from leaders across the political divide. Instead, he switched his support towards supporting another controversial bill that was to make it hard for the High Court to overturn legislation passed by the Knesset.

The contentious bill that was to be tabled after the formation of a new right-wing coalition was to give the Knesset the ability to override Supreme Court rulings in case the court realised that the Knesset legislation went against the basic laws of the state. It was said that Netanyahu’s manoeuvring that resulted in a second election was aimed at having the bill passed into law.

But with the second elections also ending without a clear majority, it meant Netanyahu couldn’t garner 61 members required to pass such legislation. It is now too late because legal proceedings have now began, and his only hope is that he wins the next election then get immunity from the House Committee and the Knesset.

L'articolo Netanyahu’s Request for Immunity Explained proviene da InsideOver.