Global Courant
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said early Sunday that he was going to the hospital for an emergency procedure to get a pacemaker, but vowed to continue with his controversial judicial review plan.
In a short videotaped statement released at 2 a.m. local time, Netanyahu said he was fitted with a surveillance device after being briefly hospitalized last week for dehydration, as his office had said.
He said an alarm beeped on the device on Saturday night, meaning he needed a pacemaker immediately.
“I feel great, but I listen to my doctors,” he said.
In a brief statement, Netanyahu’s office said Israel’s leader would be placed under anesthesia. A top deputy, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, would replace him.
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Netanyahu’s office made the announcement as Israel faces widespread street protests over Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul plan.
The plan has sparked months of protests, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets Saturday night to demonstrate against the plan ahead of a major parliamentary vote on Monday.
Levin is the mastermind behind the overhaul plan.
Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister would receive the pacemaker at Israel’s Sheba Hospital, where he also received treatment last week.
Protesters protesting proposed judicial reforms wave Israeli flags as they march past cars on a highway near the town of Mevasseret Zion, Israel, on Saturday. (Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images)
Netanyahu said he expected to be released from hospital on Sunday and go to the Knesset or parliament ahead of the expected vote on his revision.
At the same time, he said he hoped to reach an agreement with his opponents.
A pacemaker is used when a patient’s heart beats too slowly, which can lead to fainting, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. It can also be used to treat heart failure.
By sending electrical pulses to the heart, the device increases or maintains a person’s heart rate at a normal rhythm, allowing the heart to pump blood to the body at a normal rate.
