A new poll commissioned by Channel 10 found that an overwhelming majority of Israelis oppose a controversial bill that would bar police investigations into a sitting prime minister.
According to the poll, fully 71% of Jewish Israelis said that that they oppose the law while 19% said they supported it. Ten percent said that they were undecided.
Among non-Jewish Israelis the gap was even higher - 83% opposed the bill while only 13% supported it.
The bill has faced significant opposition from within the government as well. On Wednesday, Coalition Chairman MK David Bitan (Likud) pushed off the vote for the 'Immunity Law' until next month due to objections from the Jewish Home party.
Kulanu leader Moshe Kahlon, who also serves as Finance Minister, said on Monday that he would not require Kulanu MKs to support the bill. "No member of the faction will vote against his conscience. There will be no such thing."
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit also slammed the bill this past Monday, calling it an "absurd proposal" and made it clear that he was "absolutely opposed to it."
The attorney general said the bill asked too much of citizens by preventing the prosecution of a prime minister until the end of his or her term in office.
“If you know that a prime minister is corrupt, is this what we want? Because that’s what it would mean,” Mandelblit said. “It’s not right, not fitting and not appropriate for our country."
Proponents of the bill have contended that the law would block politically motivated investigations by overzealous police officers who seek to topple an elected prime minister.
"Since 1977, seemingly since the right wing has been in power, all the law enforcement agencies – and especially the State Prosecutor’s Office – have been convincing the public that public corruption exists. And I tell you, there is no corruption in public government. It’s their way of taking power from elected officials and ruling in practice," MK David Amsalem (Likud) told Haaretz.