Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday ripped into protesters opposed to his government’s efforts to overhaul the judicial system, assailing them for regularly harassing coalition lawmakers at public events.
Netanyahu made the comments a day after anti-government protesters heckled Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman, one of the architects of the overhaul plans, at an event in Tel Aviv, forcing him to leave. Netanyahu also mentioned several other incidents of anti-overhaul protesters interrupting events involving coalition lawmakers.
“In the name of democracy, in the name of freedom of expression, they prevented Simcha Rothman from speaking at Tel Aviv University,” Netanyahu said in a speech to the Knesset.
“Hitting Avi Dichter, attacking Nir Barkat, expelling Boaz Bismuth from a synagogue during Holocaust Remembrance Day,” Netanyahu said, listing some incidents over the past few months.
“Is it legal to come to a public representative, and chase them, threaten them, and restrict their freedom of movement in a public space? This is very serious,” Netanyahu said.
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During the speech, Netanyahu also charged that protesters are constantly changing their message, whether it is opposition to the state budget, or the government’s controversial plan to redistribute property taxes from richer to poorer locales, claiming this was to ensure “there will be not one moment of peace.”
שמחה רוטמן מגיע לאוניברסיטת תל-אביב. pic.twitter.com/kBmpYjT0Bu
— Ben Caspit בן כספית (@BenCaspit) May 28, 2023
Netanyahu said members of his party had described attacks and threats against them.
Responding to Netanyahu at the plenum, opposition leader Yair Lapid said: “You’re speaking of incitement? Where were you when bullets were sent to the son and wife of [former prime minister Naftali] Bennett? … You’re speaking of MKs being hounded? Don’t you know what happened outside the home of [former Yamina MK] Nir Orbach? What were you doing for a year and a half besides inciting violently and viciously?”
During a closed-door Likud faction meeting Monday, lawmakers said they needed a security boost since demonstrators regularly accost them at events, the Ynet net news site reported. The prime minister said he will look into the matter, the report said.
Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis was said to tell the meeting that his neighbors were trying to expel him from his Tel Aviv neighborhood: “They put a note on my car window that read ‘You aren’t wanted here.'”
MK Keti Shitrit claimed that she had appealed to National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on the matter, but that he had not taken action
MKs Yuli Edelstein, Moshe Saada, and Hanoch Milwidsky also complained about threats from protesters.
MK Simcha Rothman chairs a Constitution, Law and Justice Committee at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, May 29, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
On Sunday, hundreds of demonstrators, including some university students and faculty, obstructed Rothman’s entry into a building where a panel discussion on the proposed judicial overhaul was set to take place.
Security personnel eventually cleared the way, enabling Rothman, the chair of the Knesset Constitution Committee, to enter the premises. However, his comments during the panel were persistently interrupted by demonstrators chanting “Democracy!” and calling Rothman a fascist.
In response, the Religious Zionism MK countered: “Your argument is weak. You’re unable to intellectually confront [my arguments], so you resort to shouting?” He also sought to blame the protesters for the economic repercussions of the overhaul, claiming: “It is not the legal revolution hurting the economy, but those here crying wolf.”
After he was unable to fully participate in the panel, Rothman was escorted out of the building by security guards and placed in a campus security vehicle that brought him to his car — which had been covered in anti-government stickers by protesters.
Education Minister Yoav Kisch wrote a letter to the heads of universities on Monday over the protest at Rothman’s appearance, accusing them of facilitating a “serious attack on freedom of expression in academia.”
“You have acted in an extreme political way to silence an entire camp that thinks differently from you,” he said, and urged them to “change your ways.”
“I am not surprised you led the academic establishment to this difficult situation. I am sorry that there’s no real freedom of expression in academia. On the one hand, you are fighting to protect freedom of expression of the extreme left, while at the same time, the other side of the political map is violently silenced within academic halls,” he wrote.
Protesters lift flags during a rally protesting the government’s judicial overhaul plans in Tel Aviv on May 27, 2023. (JACK GUEZ/AFP)
After rushing a range of overhaul bills through the Knesset to the brink of full passage, Netanyahu announced in late March a pause in order to allow for compromise talks aimed at reaching a broad agreement. Talks are ongoing but have yet to yield results.
The premier told the Likud faction meeting on Monday that the overhaul was “not dead.” According to a Likud representative, however, Netanyahu did tell his fellow party members at the faction meeting that Likud must make every effort in the ongoing discussions with the opposition in order to reach broadly accepted agreements.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of people demonstrated nationwide against the judicial overhaul plans for the 21st consecutive week.
Carrie Keller-Lynn contributed to this report.