Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu to be fitted with a pacemaker

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be fitted with a pacemaker in a procedure scheduled just before the Knesset is set to vote on a controversial judicial reform bill.

The surgery is scheduled to happen at Tel Hashomer Hospital. The prime minister will be sedated during the surgery, his office said. “During the procedure, the Minister of Justice and Deputy Prime Minister Yariv Levin will take his place,” the statement added.

Benjamin Netanyahu, 73, earlier announced on Twitter that he would be fitted with the device.

“I want to update you on what’s going to happen. Last week they gave me a monitoring device. The device beeped and said I need a pacemaker, and I need to do that already tonight. I feel great, but I listen to my doctors. The doctors tell me that I will be free tomorrow afternoon already. I will be discharged from the hospital ready to arrive at the Knesset for the vote,” Benjamin Netanyahu said in the video.

Benjamin Netanyahu was hospitalized overnight for what his office said was dehydration amid a heat wave in the country. Doctors said he was fitted with a heart monitor during his stay.

What is Netanyahu’s controversial judicial reform bill?

The Knesset is scheduled to begin voting on a bill that would strip Israel’s Supreme Court of the power to declare government decisions “unreasonable”. This implies that one of the few checks on the government will be removed owing to which Israel has witnessed nationwide protests over the past few weeks.