Likud MK Miki Zohar on Wednesday morning spoke to Radio 103FM about why he is working to advance the Immunity Law, which would protect Knesset members and ministers from being prosecuted.
"I've been working to advance this for a very long time, since the previous Knesset, and I renewed the bill during this Knesset, already on April 30. The legislative approval for the law placed the law [on the table] two days ago," Zohar said.
"This is an important law, that we as Knesset members need, first of all in order to protect ourselves and certainly in light of the revolution we want to make in the courts, where it's clear that all of us will become targets."
Zohar explained that he believes the attempts to pass the Override Clause, which would allow the Knesset to reenact a law that was rejected by the Supreme Court, will be met by attempts to open investigations on involved MKs.
"I am very very concerned for the right-wing individuals who want to advance the Override Clause, myself included," he said. "I have no doubt that they will try to harm right-wing people and to make up all sorts of stories about all sorts of people, the main thing is to try to stop the Override Clause from passing. And so the Immunity Law is a lot more important and a lot more relevant, certainly in light of the reforms we intend to pass."
Zohar also tossed out the reports that the Immunity Law's primary function is to protect Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu from possible indictment.
"That's what they say in the media, but it's clear that that's not true," he said. "We promised our voters that we would change things in the legal system, especially after we saw the decision to leave Ofer Cassif, who plants evil and really really ugly things against the State of Israel, but on the other hand because there's a right-wing person who's a little more extreme than others, Michael Ben-Ari - him the Supreme Court did invalidate."
He also said that the reason such laws had not been passed previously was because "we did not have the coalition ability to do it, we didn't have the necessary majority." In the 20th Knesset, then-Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) opposed it, and previously Blue and White leader MK Yair Lapid blocked it, he added.
"It's comfortable for people to think" that the Immunity Law is connected to the suspicions against Netanyahu, he explained.