The Times of Israel is liveblogging Wednesday’s events as they happen.
Legislation automatically recognizing medical licenses that meet EU standards clears 1st vote
The Knesset advances a bill to automatically recognize foreign medical, dental and pharmacy professional licenses, if they were issued in line with European Union standards.
Clearing its preliminary reading 31-0, the bill would be a particular boon to immigrants to Israel or returning citizens who work in those fields.
“One of the main barriers to immigration and absorption is the process of recognizing the professional licenses of immigrants and returning residents,” says Likud MK Dan Illouz, who sponsored the bill.
Ilouz also points out that Europe has operated a similar automatic recognition system for the past decade.
Lapid scheduled to testify in Netanyahu’s graft trial on June 12
Opposition leader Yair Lapid will testify in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ongoing criminal trial on June 12 regarding Case 1000, in which the premier is accused of fraud and breach of trust over his relationship with Hollywood movie mogul Arnon Milchan.
Netanyahu is accused of having received large amounts of luxury gifts such as champagne, cigars, and jewelry amounting to some NIS 700,000 from Milchan.
In return, Netanyahu allegedly worked to obtain various benefits for the tycoon, including a long-term US visa, and also sought to advance a law extending tax benefits to expatriate Israeli citizens who returned to the country, which Milchan may have been able to take advantage of.
Lapid, who served as finance minister when the so-called Milchan law was mulled in 2013 and 2014, gave testimony to police in the case. His scheduled testimony at the Jerusalem District Court is not expected to last more than a day, although Netanyahu’s defense attorneys will cross-examine him.
Lapid has previously stated that pressure had been put on him to advance the law but that he and his Yesh Atid party acted as “the last barrier against government corruption.”
Opposition bill to enshrine principle of equality in Basic Law voted down
The Knesset defeats a proposal to formally insert the principle of equality into Israel’s quasi-constitutional Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, with Justice Minister Yariv Levin slamming the opposition for raising the matter in the midst of larger judicial discussions.
“We are not allowed to do anything, but you are allowed to promote a Basic Law that is at the core of the issues in dispute and at the core of what is being discussed at the President’s Residence,” Levin charges from the Knesset rostrum.
He also insists the coalition doesn’t oppose the Basic Law, while blaming the opposition for the impasse in judicial reform talks and railing at the Supreme Court.
“We all have a problem that post-Zionist agendas have entered the judicial system and the Supreme Court in particular, which are used for completely different things, to erase Zionism.”
Put forward by Labor MK Gilad Kariv, the proposal is seen as largely symbolic and was expected to be defeated, but highlights a broader political debate about the intersection of judicial activism and civil rights.
Equality is not guaranteed by statute in Israel, but rather was read into Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty by the Supreme Court. Lauded by civil rights groups, the longstanding decision has also been excoriated by far-right and religious members of the coalition, who slam the court for using equality as a basis for invalidating desired pieces of legislation.
German court convicts left-wing extremists for attacking neo-Nazis
DRESDEN, Germany — A German court sentences a left-wing extremist woman to more than five years in jail for attacking neo-Nazis and other far-right radicals.
The principal defendant, identified only as Lina E., and three other suspects are convicted for participating in a “criminal organization” that carried out several assaults against right-wing extremists between 2018 and 2020.
In their closing argument, prosecutors had argued that there “is no good political violence” and had sought eight years in prison for Lina E.
The defense had urged the judge to acquit the accused, saying that the prosecution had based its case mainly on the statements of a key witness who was a former member of the group and who is currently in a witness protection program.
Prosecutors said the group planned the attacks intensively, including by spying on their victims.
In one attack in October 2018, the group’s members kicked and beat a right-wing extremist in the eastern town of Wurzen, leaving him with serious injuries.
In October 2019, they carried out an assault on the owner and several customers of a restaurant popular with neo-Nazis in the central town of Eisenach.
The owner and several people accompanying him were also assaulted two months later on the streets.
The four defendants shared a “militant far-left ideology,” said prosecutors.
E. and her partner Johann G. — who is still at large — are believed to be ringleaders of the group.
The trial, which lasted a year and a half, was held under tight security.
Ahead of the verdict, police were bracing for far-left violence as the radical scene has threatened “a million (euros) worth of property damage across the country” for every year of imprisonment handed down by the court.
Far-left activists have also called a demonstration in Leipzig on Saturday.
Military Police arrest 4 soldiers on suspicion of beating Palestinian detainee
Four Israeli soldiers have been arrested by Military Police for allegedly beating a Palestinian detainee recently, the Israel Defense Forces says.
One of the soldiers is an officer with the rank of lieutenant.
An IDF source says the incident of “serious physical harm” to the Palestinian man was reported to Military Police by the soldiers’ superiors.
Last month, four Golani soldiers were charged with beating a Palestinian man in the West Bank and abandoning him. Three of them have already been sentenced to jail terms.
In Azerbaijan, Herzog says no deadline on judicial reform talks: ‘This is a long process’
As he wraps up a visit to Azerbaijan, President Isaac Herzog comments on the ongoing judicial reform talks he’s mediating, acknowledging the gap between the sides while stressing he believes a deal is possible.
“This is a long process and I don’t have a deadline,” Herzog says.
He says he’s “not naive” that the negotiations have yet to yield any breakthroughs, adding the talks are currently focused on forging agreement on “essential principles” before getting into the nitty-gritty.
“I know what I am doing is the best for the State of Israel — to reach broad consensus and get out of this difficult strait that threatens to crumble us from within,” he says.