Israeli police are investigating recent calls by former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and former IDF deputy chief of staff Yair Golan for civil uprising to oppose the governing coalition’s judicial reform initiative.
The unit to combat terrorism on the internet, which is under the authority of Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, will examine the statements and forward the results of the initial investigation to the prosecutor’s office, which will decide whether to launch a criminal investigation.
Maj. Gen. (res.) Golan, a former Knesset member and deputy economy minister for the far-left Meretz Party, drew criticism from the ruling coalition on Tuesday after calling for a “nonviolent uprising” against the government over its judicial reform push.
“In the face of the attempts to destroy democracy, we will mount an unequivocal civil resistance, and if we have to have a large-scale and nonviolent uprising, that is what we will do,” Golan told Kan News.
He also said that demonstrators will have “no choice but to break the law.”
The Likud Party slammed Golan’s comments as “incitement to rebellion” and called for him to be investigated.
“Those who violate the law and call to break the law must pay a price. Otherwise the rule of law has no meaning,” the party said.
The police are also investigating Ehud Barak’s remarks at an anti-government protest in Haifa earlier in June. Barak urged demonstrators to engage in “civil rebellion, or in more precise language, nonviolent civil disobedience.”
In a statement responding to the incitement investigation, Barak said, “This is not a suspicion of rebellion, it is an attempt at political intimidation of the poor variety used in rotten regimes.”
He added that it was an “attempt to scare Yair, me and you. So I have news for [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir: we are not afraid of anyone or anything.”
Israeli society is deeply divided on the judicial reform initiative. Supporters of the legal overhaul say they want to end years of judicial overreach while opponents describe the proposals as anti-democratic.
Legislation advancing through the Knesset would primarily alter the way judges are appointed and removed, give the Knesset the ability to override certain High Court rulings, restrict the ability of judges to apply standards of “reasonableness,” and change the way legal advisors are appointed to government ministries.
