Moral Turpitude is a legal term referring to conduct that is considered contrary to community standards of justice, honesty or good morals. In essence it means that you did not just break the law, but you broke in a way that is much worse. In Hebrew it is called "קלון".
In addition to the actual punishment for breaking the crime, jail time or whatever, if the judge decides that the crime was one that bears moral turpitude, such a person would not be able to hold public office for a certain period. For example, he could not be a member of the Knesset or as a Minister in the government for a period of 7 years, the Israeli Bar can reject an applicant who had committed a crime with kalon, etc.
Recent examples of crimes with moral turpitude were Aryeh Deri, Moshe Feiglin, Tzachi Hanegbi.. They all had to wait for the 7 years to expire before being able to run for Knesset.
In an attempt to raise the moral level of government, MK Moshe Mizrachi (Labor) proposed a law to change the punishment of moral turpitude. According to Mizrachi's proposal, someone who committed a crime with moral turpitude would never be able to return to public office. Not even after 7 years.
The Ministerial committee for legislation debated his law proposal and decided to make changes to it. They did not like it open-ended like that, but they did double it from 7 to 14 years.
Another change made by the committee is whether people would be grandfathered in. The original proposal had said that even those convicted of such crimes prior to the passing of this law would be bound by it and would not be allowed to return to public life. The committee changed it and allowed the grandfather clause - anybody already convicted under the old law will still be allowed to take public office after 7 years. Only people convicted of such crimes after the passing of the new law will be banned for life.
The proposal has passed the vote of the committee and will be voted on by the Knesset.
(source: Globes)
Good law. I like Mizrachi's original proposal even better to ban them for life..
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