Israel Parliament Gives Government Vast Power on Virus

(Bloomberg) --

Israel’s parliament gave the government sweeping authorities to combat a resurgent coronavirus outbreak, weakening its own oversight over cabinet decisions as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warns of a possible second lockdown.

A bill approved early Thursday allows the cabinet to declare a state of emergency and impose new restrictions with little to no parliamentary supervision. It was passed amid a barrage of protests against the government’s handling of the crisis, and guts a committee that has overruled some of the restrictions Netanyahu wanted to recently impose.

Lawmakers would have 24 hours to vet new regulations, which would automatically take effect in the case of no opposition. If the government deems the restrictions urgent, then they can take effect immediately, with Knesset given up to two weeks to reverse them.

Opposition lawmakers said the legislation gives the cabinet too much power, and it was criticized as “unusual and unprecedented” by the legal adviser to parliament’s judicial committee, who said lawmakers should have at least 72 hours to review government plans. On Wednesday, protesters marched through Jerusalem and briefly blocked the entrance to parliament in opposition to the law.

While Netanyahu was widely praised as reining in the virus during Israel’s first outbreak, the government he formed afterward is now presiding over soaring infection numbers, mounting deaths and stubbornly high joblessness. The number of confirmed cases has more than tripled to top 56,000 since late May, while the number of deaths has climbed some 60% to 430. Unemployment, while down from a late April high of about 28%, remains stuck at 21% even though much of the economy has been open for the past two months.

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