The former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and a former parliamentarian, Yair Golan, are under police investigation for alleged incitement related to their calls for non-violent protest against the government’s proposals to overhaul the judiciary, according to Hebrew media.
Israeli news outlets reported on Tuesday that law enforcement agencies were reviewing statements made by the politicians, who represented Israel’s centre-left Labor party and leftwing Meretz party respectively, on the grounds of alleged sedition. Such charges are punishable by up to five years in prison.
The investigation falls under the purview of a taskforce set up in February under the command of the far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, to address “incitement to terrorism against Israeli citizens and public figures” made on social media.
So far, it has also been used by the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party to file a police complaint against the Tel Aviv mayor, Ron Huldai, over his comments on the judicial overhaul, which was not upheld, and to open a criminal investigation into comments made by the far-right member of the Knesset Zvika Fogel in support of a settler rampage in the occupied Palestinian village of Huwara earlier this year.
According to the news outlet Ynet, the results of the initial investigation by police, the Shin Bet security agency, Israel’s military and national cyber directorate, will be forwarded to the state prosecutor’s office in the next few days, which will decide whether to proceed with indictments.
Both men have strenuously defended their comments, in which they argued for civil disobedience and “illegal” but non-violent actions as part of Israel’s six-month-old protest movement against the proposed judicial legislation.
Golan previously told Kan Radio that “in the fight for democracy, you have to do non-violent things that are on the fringes of the law – there is no choice but to do it”, while Barak told protesters at a rally in Haifa earlier this month to engage in “nonviolent civil disobedience”.
Responding to the investigation reports, Barak said in a tweet: “This is an attempt at political intimidation of the inferior variety practised by rotten regimes.”
Speaking to Channel 12, Golan said “we have to fight for democracy”, and “they can investigate whoever they want”.
News of the investigation comes after calls from Likud for the police to take action against the two men, saying “those who violate the law and call for the violation of the law must pay a price, otherwise the rule of law has no meaning”.
A social media post shared by Netanyahu also called on Israel’s law enforcement agencies to “stop the campaign of sedition by Ehud Barak and his friends”.
Netanyahu returned to office at the end of 2022 at the head of the most rightwing government in Israeli history, which soon announced the wide-ranging judicial legislation aimed at curbing the power of the country’s supreme court. Critics say the changes will erase democratic norms.
The issue has given rise to an unprecedented protest movement, damaged Israel’s economy, and drawn criticism of the government from international allies such as the US.
