The Knesset plenum voted with an overwhelming majority on Tuesday afternoon in favor of the procedure to impeach President Moshe Katsav.
Thirty MKs approved the proposal while two objected and one abstained.
The House Committee approved the procedure earlier in the day, stipulating that deliberations over the proposed impeachment would have to begin within two weeks of the formal submission of a petition signed by no less than 30 Knesset members in favor of impeachment.
The Knesset is expected to hand over the approved petition to President Katsav by Tuesday night.
The Knesset House Committee further ruled that it will be permitted to summon the attorney general or one of his representatives to committee meetings on the matter.
Should 19 of the 25 members of the House Committee ultimately approve Katsav's impeachment, the matter will then be brought before the Knesset plenum, where a 90 vote majority is required for its final approval.
MK Eitan: Decision sloppy and vicious
Deputy Knesset Speaker and Knesset House Committee member MK Ahmad Tibi (United Arab List-Ta’al) addressed the decision: "This is a balanced and reasonable decision that allows the president to defend himself, but as I estimate that the president will not be impeached and will not resign by the end of his term in mid-July due to the legal proceedings and the decision to grant him a temporary suspension last week."
MK Michael Eitan (Likud) thought otherwise: "In an expedited move the Knesset House Committee has set sloppy and vicious rules for the impeachment of a president. All democratic countries maintain the rights of the defendant during the impeachment of a president, which is a legal procedure. The Knesset House Committee has set rules that do not respect the defendant's rights."
Meretz Chairman MK Yossi Beilin took a hard stance against Katsav from the Knesset pulpit during the vote over the procedure.
"I want to tell the president that the Knesset has no intention of playing games – we cannot accept the temporary suspension which he himself can annul," said Beilin, "today he will receive a warning from us that the situation cannot continue like this."
Prior to the approval of the impeachment procedure the Knesset voted against a counter-proposal put forth by MK Eitan suggesting alternative procedures.