• The Knesset approved a bill to restrict the circumstances.
• Under which a sitting prime minister may be deemed unfit for office.
• The Knesset passed a bill to allow the government to declare the Prime Minister incapacitated.

Israeli opposition MPs criticized a proposed bill that would restrict the circumstances under which a sitting prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be deemed unfit for office.

Critics primarily regard the law as a means of protecting Benjamin Netanyahu, who is currently the subject of a corruption trial.

Merav Michaeli, the leader of the Labor Party, added that Netanyahu must see the protest movement in Israel against the controversial judicial reforms implemented by the government as well as the warnings that have followed from Washington as a “red light.”

The measure that stipulates that only the prime minister himself or the cabinet, with a two-thirds majority, can designate the leader unsuitable was approved by the Knesset by a final vote of 61 to 47. A super majority in the parliament would then need to approve the cabinet’s decision.

Additionally, “The authority to declare the Prime Minister incapacitated will only belong to the government or the Knesset and will only occur due to physical or mental incapacity,” a Knesset statement said on Thursday.

The bill also prevents the Supreme Court from considering “a request to declare the incapacity of the Prime Minister.”

“Given that a sitting prime minister derives his power and authority from the people through his representatives, this proposal reflects the existing concept according to which the removal of the leader against his will, will be determined by the people’s representatives alone without the involvement of an unelected arm,” the statement said.

It happened the day after the Israeli ambassador to the United States was called to account for a Knesset vote on Tuesday to overturn a 2005 law that had previously mandated the evacuation of four Israeli settlements built in the northern West Bank.

Despite the repeals, the office of Israel’s prime minister later declared that no new settlements will be built in areas that were previously evacuated under the 2005 disengagement law.

In a statement, the prime minister’s office said the parliament’s “decision to repeal parts of the secession law brings an end to a discriminatory and humiliating law that prohibited Jews from living in the areas of northern Samaria, part of our historical homeland,” using the biblical name for part of the West Bank.

“However, the government has no intention of establishing new settlements in these areas.”

Israeli civilians are not permitted to enter the area, which is treated as a closed military zone by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which stated that it is still “learning the meanings of the bill and will act in accordance to the law.” Without IDF approval, no alterations to the area will be made.

Israel contests that the West Bank is an occupied territory and that Israeli settlements there are unlawful under international law.

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