Faced with the clashes that erupted in Israel after the most right-wing coalition in the country’s history came to power, President Isaac Herzog, a veteran of the Labor Party, called for calm. “We need to calm things down, lower the temperature,” he said on Tuesday (10).
The head of state, elected in 2021 by the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, called on “elected officials and citizens from across the political spectrum” to cherish moderation and responsibility. “This is a sensitive and volatile period,” continued the president.
The statements come after yet another episode sparking a narrative dispute between supporters of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and center-left opposition politicians. The case revolves around the controversial judicial reform guided by the government of Bibi, as the prime minister is known. The plan would weaken the Supreme Court.
Earlier, lawmaker Zvika Fogel, from the Otzmá Yehudit (Jewish Force) coalition, called for the arrest of opposition leaders, accusing them of betraying the state and being “dangerous people”. The call was echoed by supporters, who claimed that opposition politicians were inciting bloodshed.
The requests came after leaders such as Benny Gantz, a former defense minister, said the judicial reform plan could lead to civil war and incite the population to take to the streets in repudiation of the project. Yair Lapid, a former prime minister, said the reform would undermine democracy.
According to information from the Times of Israel, Bibi spoke with the president and sought to distance himself from the comments of members of his coalition – but did not condemn them. “In a democratic country, we don’t arrest opposition leaders,” he said on social media.
To which the critic made: “Just as we do not call ministers Nazis or a Jewish government the Third Reich, nor do we encourage civil disobedience among citizens.” Bibi was referring to posters displayed at a demonstration against judicial reform this weekend, when members of the government were compared to Nazis.
The situation escalated after the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, an ultranationalist who has been involved in episodes of political tension, ordered the police to repress demonstrators if they stopped traffic. Opposition members like Lapid said such a speech would culminate in violence against civilians.
Later, on Twitter, the centrist former prime minister nominally criticized Netanyahu. “In a democratic country, you don’t attack citizens or the justice system,” he wrote. “You have become a weak prime minister, cornered by your extremist partners, who are leading the State of Israel to ruin.”
Netanyahu returned to power alongside an ultra-right coalition after winning elections last November. The politician led the country for 12 years previously, until 2021. His allies have sparked conflicts not only with the opposition, but also with Palestinians, in a situation described by analysts as having the potential to escalate regional tension.
This Monday (9), for example, minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said he had directed the country’s police to prohibit the hoisting of Palestinian flags in public. Days earlier, his trip to the Al-Aqsa mosque complex, a holy place, sparked a diplomatic crisis that included criticism even from Brazil.
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