Far-right Israeli Lawmaker Calls for Arrest of ‘Treasonous’ Opposition Figures, Including Former PM
A member of Israel’s parliament from the ultra-right Otzma Yehudit party, a partner in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s newly installed coalition government, on Tuesday accused four prominent opposition figures of “treason against the state” and called for their arrest.
Member of Knesset Zvika Fogel said that Opposition Leader Yair Lapid and MK Benny Gantz, who served as prime minister and defense minister, respectively, in the outgoing government, along with former MKs Moshe Ya’alon and Yair Golan, were “the most dangerous people right now” due to their support for protests, including the use of civil disobedience, against the government’s plan to overhaul the judicial system and their warnings about the possibility of civil war.
Ya’alon, like Gantz, is a former defense minister and former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces. Golan is a major general in the IDF reserves. Fogel is himself a retired brigadier general.
Fogel’s fellow party member, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, was given expanded powers to supervise and make policy for the police, leading to fears that the calls to arrest political opponents may be more than an idle threat. Fogel also will have a police oversight role as head of the Knesset’s Public Security Committee.
The remarks by Fogel drew condemnation not only from the opposition but also from some coalition partners.
Lapid tweeted: “It was obvious that this would come. In non-democratic countries, the leadership always threatens to arrest opposition leaders.”
In another tweet, the opposition leader and former prime minister added: “This is how democracy falls apart, in a day. Ben Gvir says to use water cannons against our protesters, MK Fogel says Gantz and I should be arrested and thrown in jail for treason, and in Beersheba, a man tries to run over our students for demonstrating and making use of their right to free speech. We will not let them trample us and our beloved country.”
Another Knesset member in the opposition and former military chief of staff, Gadi Eisenkot, said that Fogel should “take back his severe remarks” and demanded that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu “immediately condemn” the comments. “A coalition that calls for the arrest of opposition leaders is unacceptable in a democracy,” Eisenkot said.
Likewise, Gantz asked Netanyahu to “condemn the attacks on protesters and the severe remarks.”
Netanyahu eventually did release a statement that was critical of Fogel’s call to arrest opposition leaders while echoing his view that anti-government protests had gone too far: “In a democratic country, opposition chiefs aren’t arrested, just like government ministers aren’t called Nazis, Jewish governments aren’t called the Third Reich, and civil disobedience among the public isn’t encouraged,” the statement read.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant issued a similarly “balanced” statement, urging “everyone – from right and left – to calm the waters” and saying that “words carry significance and we are entering dangerous territory. Even in times of deep disagreement, the job of public leaders is to preserve national unity.”
Fogel’s comments were supported by some members of his own party, including Jerusalem and Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu and Deputy Minister Almog Cohen. But Galilee and Negev Development Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf encouraged fellow right-wingers to “calm things down and not be drawn into provocations from the other side.” Likewise, it was widely reported in the Israeli media that party chief Ben Gvir, in a closed WhatsApp group, urged party members not to “go in the direction of arresting Lapid and Gantz, no way.”
