Coalition turns Gotliv hearing into attack on AG, who opposes immunity for Likud MK |
As the Knesset House Committee held its second hearing on MK Tally Gotliv’s request for immunity from prosecution on Tuesday, the Likud lawmaker and her coalition allies tore into Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and aired more conspiracy theories involving the judiciary, anti-government protesters and security forces, in a range of areas unrelated to the indictment against Gotliv.
Meanwhile, the attorney general maintained that Gotliv violated the law by exposing the identity of a Shin Bet officer and that parliamentary immunity does not shield her.
The Attorney General’s Office announced last month that it was indicting Gotliv over social media posts from 2024 identifying the partner of anti-government protest leader Shikma Bressler as a Shin Bet agent, while promoting baseless conspiracy theories linking him to Hamas and insinuating that he bore responsibility for the October 7, 2023, terror onslaught.
According to the Knesset’s legal advisory team, Gotliv’s immunity request rests on three of the four grounds provided under the law: that her actions were carried out in the course of her duties as an MK, that the indictment was filed in bad faith or constitutes selective enforcement, and that the prosecution would impede the Knesset’s functioning or Gotliv’s ability to represent her constituents.
The committee is scheduled to hold a third hearing on Monday, after which it is expected to vote on whether to recommend granting Gotliv immunity.
Given the coalition’s majority on the committee, the request is widely expected to be approved and then forwarded to the Knesset plenum, where the coalition is also expected to have the votes needed to ratify it. Any immunity granted, however, would expire at the conclusion of the current Knesset’s term in the coming weeks.
Gotliv does not deny exposing the officer’s identity, but claimed throughout the first hearing on Monday and again on Tuesday that her actions were justified.
In her remarks, delivered amid near-constant interruptions and heckling from coalition lawmakers, Baharav-Miara maintained that the case concerned an alleged........