Israeli leader Netanyahu takes a break from hospital to pass divisive bill
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem on December 9.
(CNN) — Just two days after undergoing prostate removal surgery, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left a Jerusalem hospital against his doctor’s orders to help his party pass a divisive budget law. Hours later, with the parliamentary crisis averted, he returned to continue his recovery.
Netanyahu spent the day at the Knesset – the Israeli parliament – to push a controversial bill aimed at regulating how companies in Israel distribute dividends and pay taxes.
His presence proved decisive: The bill passed by one vote after some right-wing parties in Netanyahu’s government attempted to block it over disagreements with the Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, underscoring divisions within the government.
Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who also leads the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, is one of the members of parliament holding back the bill over a disagreement with Smotrich, a former ally, involving funding for the police.
Ben Gvir has argued that the tax reform diverts money away from raises for police officers, while Netanyahu and Smotrich argue that the police have already received large increases in the past two years.
Netanyahu said he expects Ben Gvir to “stop shaking the coalition and endangering the existence of the right-wing government at a crucial moment in Israel’s history.”
Ben Gvir and Smotrich traded blame over the need for Netanyahu to leave the hospital for the vote.
Smotrich said Ben Gvir chose to “hurt the prime minister and bother him from his sick bed.”
Ben Gvir, meanwhile, said the matter would have been solved had Smotrich agreed to negotiate.
“It pained me greatly to see how Finance Minister Smotrich drags the prime minister whom we all love from his sick bed, just because of his ego and his refusal to conduct any negotiations with me, despite the pleas of the prime minister’s associates,” Ben Gvir told the Knesset.
A spokesperson for the Hadassah Medical Center told CNN that Netanyahu decided to leave the hospital “contrary to the medical opinion of the staff.”
On Saturday, Netanyahu’s office said an examination on Wednesday had discovered a urinary tract infection due to a benign prostate enlargement, and that the prime minister’s infection had been treated by antibiotics.
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CNN’s Mike Schwartz contributed to this report.
