Under current laws, if a politician is sentenced to three months or more in jail and a court rules that his illegal actions were “disgraceful,” he may not run for office for at least seven years. The lobby's proposal would increase the time period during which those convicted of corruption charges and sentenced to at least one year in jail may not run for office to 15 years.
Eldad expressed hope that the law would send a message of support for morality and public values. “When it comes to serious crimes, the public must be protected from the criminal for a very long time,” he explained. “Even someone who 'paid his price to society' and served his time should not be allowed to return to the scene of the crime. And someone who took a bribe, for example, should not be allowed to be elected and serve a second term during which he could abuse his authority and misuse public funds.”
Attorney Eliad Shraga, head of the Movement for Quality Government, agreed. “People think that someone can pay his debt to society and then return to the scene of the crime and run for public office again. Imagine that tomorrow [nuclear spy] Mordechai Vanunu would want to be CEO of the nuclear core. It's ridiculous,” he said.
Shraga said Israeli society had become increasingly tolerant of corrupt politicians, and that in the past, running for public office would not have been an option for those convicted of criminal charges. “Thirty years ago society vomited out people like that, to the point where those who were convicted would leave the country or would even commit suicide,” he said.
Former IDF General Uzi Dayan, head of the Tafnit party, expressed support for the proposal and rejected arguments made by politicians who say such laws violate personal freedom. “Being an elected official is not a basic or human right, it's a privilege,” he said.