Global Courant
The Israeli prime minister says he feels “great” and expects to be released in time for an important vote on his judicial changes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been hospitalized for an emergency procedure to get a pacemaker ahead of a major parliamentary vote on his controversial judiciary overhaul plan.
In a video statement early Sunday, Netanyahu said he was fitted with a surveillance device after being briefly hospitalized last week for dehydration, his office said.
The 73-year-old leader said an alarm beeped on the device on Saturday night, meaning he needed a pacemaker immediately.
“I feel great, but I have to listen to my doctors,” he said.
A pacemaker is used when a patient’s heart is beating too slowly. By sending electrical pulses to the heart, it 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.
Netanyahu, standing in the video and smiling, said his doctors assured him he would be released from the hospital on Sunday afternoon.
In a separate statement, Netanyahu’s office said the Israeli leader would be placed under anesthesia. A top deputy, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, would replace him.
The prime minister will undergo the procedure at Sheba Medical Center in Tel HaShomer, the statement said.
The announcement came as hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets in Tel Aviv and other cities for the 29th consecutive week, urging the Israeli government to suspend its judicial plan.
Netanyahu said in the video that he would be released from the hospital in time for the expected vote on his overhaul, which will begin in parliament on Sunday and last through Monday.
At the same time, he suggested that last-minute arrangements could be made with his opponents.
Critics fear the judicial changes are designed to curb the independence of the court by Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, which he denies.
Netanyahu, who is in his sixth term as prime minister, says the reforms would balance the branches of government.
The upheaval has contributed to tensions in relations with the United States, as well as rising Israeli-Palestinian violence and progress in Iran’s nuclear program.
Washington has urged Netanyahu to seek broad agreements on any judicial reforms.
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