Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi told JNS on Sunday that left-wing leaders Yair Lapid and Yair Golan are competing “to see who will be the greater anarchist” by calling for an anti-government revolt.
“The greater the political distress, the deeper their moral decline,” said Karhi, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, in an apparent reference to Lapid’s recent decline in the polls.
Speaking at an anti-government protest in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, Lapid, who heads the Israeli opposition, threatened to shut down the economy should the government defy a High Court injunction against a Cabinet decision to fire Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) chief Ronen Bar.
If Netanyahu’s coalition “decides not to obey the court’s ruling, it will turn itself that day, that moment, into a criminal government,” he said.
“The economy needs to strike, the Knesset needs to strike, courts need to strike, local authorities need to strike, not only the universities need to strike, but also the schools,” urged the Yesh Atid Party leader, who added, “If we can organize a tax revolt, we will organize a tax revolt.”
During the same rally, Yair Golan, chairman of the opposition left-wing HaDemokratim party (“The Democrats,” a merger of the former Labor and Meretz parties), went one step further by appearing to call for a coup.
A government that refuses court injunctions is “illegal and dangerous,” Golan declared, adding: “A government that refuses to obey the law is a dangerous government that must be stopped. It must be overthrown!”
Earlier on Sunday, members of Netanyahu’s coalition of right-wing and religious parties slammed Lapid and Golan’s remarks in conversation with JNS, accusing the opposition of endangering the Jewish state.
The remarks came after some senior ministers vowed to defy the court’s temporary injunction preventing the dismissal of the Shin Bet director, despite the Cabinet’s unanimous decision on Thursday to fire him.
Netanyahu said on Friday that he has the authority to dismiss Bar while insisting that the debate over the issue will not deteriorate into civil war.
“There will be no war between brothers! The State of Israel is a state of law, and according to the law, the government of Israel decides who will be the head of the Shin Bet,” the premier wrote in a statement on X.
Protests have rocked Jerusalem for days following the prime minister’s initial March 16 announcement that he would seek Bar’s firing over an “ongoing lack of trust” in the Jewish state’s internal security chief.
The Israel Police said on Sunday night it had detained three protesters over “an attempt to breach fences and attack a Border Police officer.
“Since this morning, police forces have been working together with Border Police officers to allow the freedom of protest for thousands of participants in Jerusalem—on Gaza Street and near the Knesset—while maintaining public order,” the Israel Police announced.
During protests on Gaza Street, which is close to the prime minister’s private residence, a “handful” of activists disrupted public order and clashed with law enforcement, with one protester attempting to hit a Border Police officer in the head, according to the police statement.
Police forces “pushed the protesters back beyond the fences of the protest area and arrested three suspects,” concluded the statement.