Group files new petition to the High Court to remove Netanyahu from office

The “Fortress of Democracy’ group has tried this maneuver before, albeit unsuccessfully.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A group called “Fortress of Democracy” has filed a new petition to Israel’s High Court to remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from office based on the doctrine of “defensive democracy,” Maariv reported Wednesday.

The petition, filed by attorney Dafna Holtz Lechner, claimed that Netanyahu was in “clear and explicit violation of the provisions of the law and the conflict-of-interest arrangement that binds him in his position in a manner that amounts to undermining the rule of law in Israel.”

In a previous ruling, the High Court said the prime minister could not make decisions regarding the status of the legal elements in the government due to his ongoing trial in three separate corruption cases.

The Cabinet recently decided to remove Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara from her position due to what is described as her constant attacks on government decisions and attempts to veto them through the courts.

In addition, Holtz Lechner wrote, in light of Netanyahu’s alleged “severe attack” on the rule of law and the principle of an independent judiciary, which constitute the foundations of a democracy, the court should rule that in the name of the principle of “defensive democracy,” he must be removed from office.

“Formal democracy,” meaning the will of the people as expressed in a majority won in elections, the petition claimed, must give way to “substantive democracy,” which requires three strong and independent branches of government that balance and check each other.

When “the foundations of the democratic system of government in the State of Israel are being undermined” by the prime minister, the lawyer wrote, the court has the authority to “determine the [his] functional incapacity.”

The group, said the report, claims that this petition is different from all others to date on the subject because it deals with all the flaws the court found in the previous appeals and that led to their rejection.

This is not the first time Fortress of Democracy has petitioned the High Court of Justice against Netanyahu.

After elections in 2021, when Netanyahu was tasked with forming the government, the court rejected the argument that a man under indictment should not be allowed to serve as prime minister.

However, an expanded panel of 11 Supreme Court justices had ruled already in 2020, after elections that year, that he could do so despite the ongoing criminal trial against him.

In addition to previous efforts related to the years-long run-up to his trial, different organizations have periodically petitioned the High Court to impeach the prime minister over the course of the Israel-Hamas war.

Both in May 2025 and in December 2024, the court threw out petitions based on their having “no factual basis” or because their claims were purely political in nature.

Benjamin NetanyahuHigh Court of Justiceimpeachment