Far-left MK explicitly calls for the government to be overthrown; ex-prime minister urges legal maneuver to remove Netanyahu from power.
By World Israel News Staff
Former prime minister Ehud Barak called for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be forced out of office via an unprecedented legal procedure, rather than by elections, as other left-wing leaders called for a tax rebellion and civil uprising against the premier.
“The attorney general should declare Netanyahu incapacitated,” Barak, a bitter political rival of Netanyahu, told Hebrew-language outlet Channel 12 News on Saturday evening.
“Netanyahu has declared war on the State of Israel [by firing Shin Bet head Ronen Bar],” Barak wrote several hours later on his X account.
“We’ll put the country on strike and imprison Netanyahu. Together we will win!” he added.
Is the government entitled to fire the head of the Shin Bet?
Last Wednesday, Netanyahu’s cabinet voted to dismiss Bar from his role as the head of the Shin Bet. The decision set off a frenzy among Israel’s left-wing politicians, who claimed that the decision to fire Bar is illegal.
On Thursday, Israel’s Supreme Court issued an injunction freezing Bar’s firing.
Several coalition lawmakers have stressed that the Supreme Court does not have the right to intervene in the matter and that Israeli law explicitly states that the head of the government is able to choose and fire the head of the intelligence agency at the time of their choosing.
Leftists call to ‘shut down the country’
However, Barak, far-left Democrats chair Yair Golan, and Opposition head Yair Lapid, among others, have said that should the Israeli government ignore the Supreme Court ruling and seek to replace Bar, they will stage a massive revolt against the coalition.
Netanyahu’s government is “doing everything to start a civil war here. Netanyahu is openly pushing for it,” claimed Lapid at a Saturday night rally in Tel Aviv.
If Bar is fired despite the Supreme Court injunction, “the entire country must stop,” Lapid continued.
“The economy needs to strike, the Knesset needs to strike, the courts need to strike, the local authorities need to strike; not only the universities need to strike, but also the schools. If we can organize a tax revolt, we will organize a tax revolt. We will not be accomplices in the destruction of democracy.”
Golan similarly threatened major action against the government, should it proceed with replacing Bar.
“A government in Israel that refuses to obey the High Court of Justice’s ruling is illegal and dangerous,” Golan told anti-government demonstrators in Tel Aviv on Saturday.
“A government that refuses to obey the law — is a dangerous government that must be stopped. It must be overthrown!” he added.
“We are stopping the economy, the ports, transportation, the schools, the academy, businesses, the streets. We are stopping the country — to save it,” he continued.
“The law comes before everything. Democracy comes before everything. The state comes before the government.”
Is Israel nearing civil war?
The former head of Israel’s Supreme Court, Aharon Barak, said in an interview with Channel 12 News on Thursday that Israeli society is nearing a breaking point.
“Israel is very close to civil war,” Barak said.
“The rift in the nation is enormous; no effort is being made to heal it, and everyone is trying to exacerbate it,” he said.
Barak’s comments were carried by international media outlets, including a French newspaper Liberation, which declared in a headline that “Netanyahu is pushing Israel to civil war.”
In a tweet published to his official X account, Netanyahu said that Israeli society is stable and that the government is acting in accordance with the law.
“There will be no civil war! The State of Israel is a country of law, and according to the law, the Israeli government decides who will be the head of the Shin Bet,” Netanyahu tweeted shortly after Barak’s interview aired.
His sentiments were echoed up by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who wrote a simple message on X declaring that “there will be no civil war.”
