Israeli president Yitzhak Herzog is conducting a high-stakes balancing act around Netanyahu’s request for clemency
Waze can be quirky, and I was sure the navigation app was taking me on a convoluted route last week to get to the Gra Shul in Shaarei Chesed. However, Waze proved itself right when I realized I couldn’t make the turn I wanted, which would have taken me past the President’s Residence on Hanasi Street.
Police had closed that part of the block after demonstrators gathered to pressure the current occupant, Yitzhak Herzog, to decline Prime Minister Netanyahu’s request for a pardon on the charges he’s been standing trial for since May 2020.
Herzog is the only official authorized to pardon Netanyahu before a verdict is reached, but the process is lengthy and complex. The Ministry of Justice has a pardons department that gathers input from various sources before submitting its recommendations to the president’s legal team.
There is a precedent in Israel for a president issuing a pre-trial pardon. In 1986, President Chaim Herzog (father of the current president) pardoned the Shin Bet chief and four of his officers, who were accused of killing two Arab terrorists involved in hijacking a bus. Herzog believed that putting them on trial could harm national security.
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