The proposal for the so-called recommendations law preventing Israel's police from recommending indictment and the ongoing police investigations into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Likud party seniors have raised public indignation in recent days and generated protests. The chairman of Kulanu, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, is sure to closely follow the demonstration against government corruption scheduled for Dec. 9 in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square.
Kahlon has reason to worry about this demonstration. Ironically, it is Kahlon who is paying a price at the polls for the proposed recommendations law, which was advanced by the Likud to help Netanyahu survive public scrutiny over the criminal investigations and is now on hold.
On Dec. 2, Kahlon still believed that the crisis surrounding the bill would not hurt him. Kahlon's party had supported the law, which was approved in the Knesset's first hearing. Kahlon was giving a relatively easy interview in the studio of Channel 10's HaMateh HaMerkazi, rejecting the accusation that he had given in and explaining that the law was not intended to benefit one individual, but a good idea he has supported for the past 15 years. But at the same time, thousands of people began gathering on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv. In less than an hour, the demonstration, called the "March of Shame" by its organizers, had drawn tens of thousands of people. There were bold signs calling for Netanyahu's arrest and imprisonment, but the protesters also vented their anger at the finance minister, who supported the law when he could have stopped it.
By the next morning, while the media was reporting on the interrogation of coalition chairman David Bitan as well as the demonstration, Kahlon began to realize how badly trapped he has become since the recommendations law became a symbol of government corruption. He tried to minimize the damage by demanding that the law wait three months to go into effect, so that it would not affect Netanyahu. At the same time, he announced that the members of his own party were free to vote according to their conscience. When HaBayit HaYehudi announced soon after that its members were also encouraged to vote as they pleased, the Knesset legislative process of three hearings before passing a law ground to a halt.
AL-MONITOR All-Access gives you unlimited access to all our journalism, the full Daily Briefing, exclusive interviews, premium newsletters, and live events — for less than $2/week.
