Ex-High Court president at anti-government rally: Israel no longer a liberal democracy

Former High Court president Aharon Barak told anti-government protesters in Tel Aviv on Saturday that Israel was no longer a liberal democracy, as thousands of people gathered at the city’s Habima Square as well as in Jerusalem and Haifa to mark three years since the government launched its effort to massively weaken the nation’s judiciary.

“All my life I’ve worked in the public service. I’m not a man who gives speeches in the city square. I’m speaking to you tonight because our life’s work — liberal democracy — is crumbling,” Barak said in a video message played at the weekly rally.

“Are we a liberal democracy? My answer: Not anymore,” said the 89-year-old, who is often accused by the right wing of entrenching judicial overreach in Israel during his years in office between 1995 and 2006.

Israel’s democratic backslide “didn’t happen in a single dramatic event,” said Barak. “It’s a process where vital aspects of democracy come under a fierce attack, and democracy is harmed.”

Barak noted that in Israel’s system of government, the prime minister effectively controls both the executive and legislative branches.

“The only body that acts as a check on the government is the court,” said Barak.

“The court alone can’t stop our backsliding for long. Only the people, who are at the center of liberal democracy, can stop the backsliding, and even bring us back to what we were, and hoped to keep being,” he said.

Also speaking at the rally were Ruby and Hagit Chen, parents of slain soldier Itay Chen, an Israeli-American who was killed when Hamas invaded southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and whose body was taken to Gaza and returned in November 2025 as part of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal.

Ruby Chen accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of empowering Hamas before the October 7 attack and of seeking a sham probe into Israel’s policy failures surrounding the attack.

“What were the prime minister and his advisers talking about a day before October 7? How to bring in more money for Hamas,” said Chen, referring to Netanyahu’s years-long policy of stabilizing Gaza by letting Qatar send millions of dollars in cash into the Strip on a monthly basis.

“More money, for more weapons, to attack my son and the Gaza border communities,” said Chen.

“My question is very simple: Why is Bibi afraid of the truth?” he added, using Netanyahu’s nickname.

מסר חי מאב שכול לרודן נתניהו, "למה אתה מפחד מהאמת!"
רובי חן, אביו של גיבור ישראל סמ״ר איתי חן ז״ל, לפני דקות ספורות בכיכר הבימה מול עשרות אלפי אנשים.@EmailRubychen@hagitchen@Nadav_Eyal

קרדיט – צחי דברת Tzachi Dovrat pic.twitter.com/BTlY6dNamf

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— Danny Gallant דני גלנט (@RedRevDanny) January 3, 2026

Netanyahu has refused to establish a state commission of inquiry — Israel’s highest investigative authority — saying it would be biased against him because of the judicial overhaul, as its members are appointed by the Supreme Court chief. Instead, the government is working on forming its own investigative panel whose mandate is being deliberated by a ministerial committee headed by Justice Minister Yariv Levin, the architect of the overhaul.

During the demonstration at Habima, police detained right-wing agitator Mordechai David and five other right-wing counter-protesters for questioning after they brawled with anti-government protesters.

The six were detained close to the start of an anti-government protest at Habima Square, after officers at the scene noticed several people disrupting public order, police said.

According to Haaretz, another right-wing activist broke the camera lens of someone documenting the demonstration. Police distanced the activist from the photographer but did not arrest him.

While being escorted away by a policeman, David claimed he was “detained because leftists attacked him” when he “entered their demonstration and said: ‘King Bibi.'”

המשטרה עיכבה לפני מספר דקות את פעיל הימין מרדכי דוד מבני ברק, יחד עם חמישה פעילי ימין נוספים, לאחר שהתעמתו עם מפגיני שמאל במהלך הפגנה בכיכר הבימה. צילום: ישראל בניוק. pic.twitter.com/x4L2ZoKFD0

— לירי בורק שביט (@lirishavit) January 3, 2026

David was convicted of attempted arson for torching a bus during ultra-Orthodox riots in 2021 against police enforcement of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, and has been interrogated several times more recently on suspicion of threatening journalists.

Police also arrested a 16-year-old boy from Bnei Brak on Saturday, after he was spotted at the protest attempting to set fire to an LGBTQ Pride flag.

Officers apprehended him before he could set the flag alight and took him to the station for questioning.

Meanwhile, police arrested two anti-government protesters who clashed with the right-wing counter-protesters who tried to damage the speakers’ stage, according to the Protest Detainee Legal Support Front, which offers pro bono legal services to people detained at anti-government protests.

שישה פעילי ימין, וביניהם מרדכי דוד, נעצרו בהפגנה נגד הממשלה בכיכר הבימה. באירוע אחר, קטין תושב בני ברק בן 16 נעצר לאחר שניסה לשרוף דגל של הקהילה הגאה. צילום: אלון בנקי@_Gitsis_ pic.twitter.com/8BmzHTs5Ek

— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) January 3, 2026

After the demonstration, protesters marched a few blocks east to rally in front of Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana’s home.

The Legal Support Front said one protester was arrested during the march, and another two protesters were arrested while blocking northbound traffic on the Ayalon Highway. The person arrested on the march was dressed up as a “Qatari sheikh,” the Legal Support Front said — an allusion to the alleged criminal ties between Netanyahu’s top aides and Hamas-backer Qatar.

All five detained anti-government protesters were taken to central Tel Aviv’s Lev police station, where they were being held alongside the six detained right-wing counter-protesters, according to the Legal Support Front.