Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Tuesday doubled down on his threat to “trample” Supreme Court President Yitzhak Amit, accusing him of trying to harm Israeli democracy.
“I’m not retracting my words—Yitzhak Amit is trampling democracy; we will not allow him to steal it,” he told the Army Radio station, adding: “I don’t have more delicate words to choose to describe the injustice that Yitzhak Amit and his colleagues are causing to Israeli democracy.”
According to the top Cabinet minister, Jerusalem’s High Court of Justice is “violently trampling and silencing the voice of the majority” and has stolen “the will of the people and the freedom of the people of Israel.”
The finance minister noted Amit’s recent injunction against the government’s decision to close down Army Radio‘s broadcasts.
“We are speaking on Army Radio—a station that every IDF chief of staff thought should be shut down. The government decided to close it, but now there is an interim injunction. This is not democracy,” he stated.
Asked by Army Radio if his remarks could amount to incitement against Amit, he emphasized that “the ones suffering are me and my colleagues ... the inevitable result of one side [the judiciary] acting with violence is that the other side also has to act with violence and force its hand.”
Speaking before a meeting of his Religious Zionism Party at the Knesset on Monday, Smotrich had accused Amit of an “extreme lack of awareness” and of “doing things that have never been done before in the court.”
“The result is that we will trample him. There won’t be a choice,” he said.
Amit, Smotrich said, was a “violent megalomaniac who is stealing Israeli democracy.” He added that while the government wished it could reach a compromise with the court, “when one side becomes so extreme, it leaves you no option but to fight back with everything you’ve got.”
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid Party) on Tuesday claimed Smotrich had threatened to “murder” the chief justice.
“Public officials have to take responsibility for their words. If the finance minister says the president of the Supreme Court should be trampled, that’s incitement to murder. It’s not metaphorical—it’s a murder threat,” Lapid told 103FM Radio. “He needs to apologize.”
Since taking office, Amit has handed down a series of rulings against the government, prompting calls for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to renew his judicial reform agenda, which were shelved in the wake of the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent seven-front war.
Amit, widely considered a left-wing judge, was sworn in as president of the country’s Supreme Court on Feb. 13, during a ceremony that was boycotted by Netanyahu’s government.
The decision, which received support from coalition lawmakers who sit on the Judicial Selection Committee, was taken following what Justice Minister Yariv Levin labeled an “illegitimate” appointment process, as well as allegations of fraud and conflicts of interest.
The government reportedly considers Amit’s nomination “null and void” and has not signed his appointment. However, legal commentators say Amit’s appointment remains legally in force following his swearing-in.
Article 12 of Basic Law: The President of the State says that the decree appointing the court president requires the signature of Netanyahu or another government minister, in addition to that of Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
According to a survey by the Jewish People Policy Institute in February Thursday, half of the Israeli public regards Amit as “problematic.” At the same time, 20% think his appointment should have been canceled, even if the move would have led to a constitutional crisis in the Jewish state.
