Gideon Sa'ar
Gideon Sa'arFlash 90

Justice Minister Gideon Sa'ar will today (Sunday) present to the Ministerial Committee on Legislation his bill imposing a term limit of eight years on the position of prime minister.

In an interview with Galei Tzahal (IDF Radio), Sa'ar said that "the proposal should be included in the law book, it will strengthen the democratic regime. In addition, I need to convince my friends, and especially Prime Minister Bennett, that preventing the tenure of a criminal defendant is important."

Sa'ar said in an interview with Channel 13 News last week, "When a term is not restricted, it means that the person who was elected endlessly looks at means of survival and endless elections, and not at what he has to do for the citizens. Therefore, I support limiting a term of office on the national level."

He said the law is being promoted "because it is in the coalition agreements, in the platform of New Hope, and it is very important because any prolonged tenure carries with it the danger of moral corruption."

"There have been a number of disputes, we have resolved them in recent days, there is currently agreement on this issue. I believe it will be one of the most important things that can be done for the democratic regime in Israel. The law has nothing to do with Netanyahu, it is not retroactive. The law establishes a principle of prohibiting a tenure of more than eight years," the minister added.

Regarding the law that will prevent those against whom indictments are filed from forming a government, Sa'ar said, "In this matter there is still a dialogue, especially between me and the Prime Minister. At the time I received his consent to publish the memorandum of the law. In fairness it did not include a commitment to support all legislative proceedings, the agreement was that we would talk about it after the budget. We will deal with this issue later."

"I have not changed my mind. I believe this is something of great importance to Israeli democracy. This is the norm that applies to local authority heads, ministers and deputy ministers. There is no reason why it cannot also apply to the post of Prime Minister," concluded the Justice Minister.