High Court to A-G: Decide on whether Netanyahu can run

Presuming there will be an election on March 2, the High Court of Justice on Monday pushed Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit closer to having to rule imminently on whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is eligible to run to keep his office.

Dozens of hi-tech officials had opened a new front on Sunday in the legal battle to oust Netanyahu, filing a petition to the High Court.

The petition runs parallel to one already filed by the Movement for the Quality of Government in Israel to the High Court and an expected future petition by the Labor party.

However, this petition has already achieved getting the High Court to order Mandelblit to go into further depth about his legal views regarding Netanyahu’s eligibility by December 18, should a third election be set by then.

Justice Ofer Grosskopf did give Mandelblit wiggle room, by technically only asking him if he thought he needed to give a concrete opinion before Election Day, but the bottom line is that the court has ramped up the pressure on the attorney-general to take a side on the issue.

Grosskopf also asked Mandelblit if he believes the High Court must rule on the issue preelection.

Mandelblit has already made it clear that he is not interested in personally being that hand that forces Netanyahu out of office.

He has made legal arguments protecting Netanyahu

from being forced out by two legal grounds of attack, while postponing indefinitely analyzing whether Netanyahu can form a new government now that he has been indicted for bribery.

Mandelblit had previously ruled that the issue can be kicked down the road because it is only theoretical.

Until Netanyahu is actually in a position in which he has the support of 61 MKs – something which may never happen, or in any event, is three months off given that a third election is imminent – Mandelblit said there is no reason to rule on it.

What is unique about the latest petition, besides that it involves a group of generally apolitical hi-tech officials, is that they specifically have attacked this theoretical argument.

They say that the issue is concrete, and not theoretical, because voters should know whether Netanyahu has the legal capacity to form a new government before they decide how to vote.

Though the High Court has not said yet that Mandelblit must rule now, so he might still be able to wait until post-election to see whether Netanyahu can rally the support of 61 MKs, Justice Grosskopf’s ruling put the attorney-general back on the hot seat he has worked hard to dodge.

Some of the leading hi-tech officials involved include: Dr. Orna Bari, Shai Weiningar, Pinhas Buchris, Dov Moran Eyal Gora, Yehoshua Sobol and Prof. Dani Tzidon. They are represented by Daphna Holech-Lechner, who has been involved in other large High Court cases. •