Cops reportedly probing right-wing agitator who blocked ex-judge Aharon Barak’s car
Investigation said opened into Mordechai David, other activists over incident targeting former Supreme Court president; Environment Minister Silman praises David, who is unrepentant
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Police reportedly opened an investigation Thursday into far-right provocateur Mordechai David and a number of others after they blocked former Supreme Court president Aharon Barak from driving away from a Tel Aviv parking lot outside a conference where he spoke the night before.
According to Hebrew media, David is to be interrogated alongside several other men on suspicion of disturbing public order after they stood in front of the 89-year-old retired judge’s car while David lambasted him as a “dictator” and “criminal.”
Police are expected to summon David for questioning, the Walla outlet reported.
David opened the door to Barak’s car and filmed himself calling the 89-year-old the “Khamenei of our generation,” referring to Iran’s authoritarian supreme leader. “Lucky for us, his generation has passed. We are the new generation, the generation of the messianic age,” David said in the recording.
Officers are reportedly examining whether David and the other activists committed any other offenses, the Ynet outlet said. Police did not respond to a request for comment confirming the investigation.
David reportedly also blocked the car of former prime minister Ehud Barak — no relation to the former chief justice — as he left the event, a conference of the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, and there was an altercation between the right-wing activists and left-wing activists who arrived.
בתום הכנס של התנועה לאיכות השלטון, חוסמים מרדכי דוד ופעילים נוספים את רכבו של נשיא בית המשפט העליון לשעבר, אהרן ברק, ומונעים ממנו לצאת מהמקום
(צילום: תומר אפלבאום) pic.twitter.com/NFvvh621o0
— Yair Foldes (@Yair_Foldes) January 28, 2026
After the incident on Wednesday night, the Movement for Quality Government filed a police complaint for disturbing public order, harassment, and blocking traffic.
On Thursday, Aharon Barak’s daughter, who was driving the car, also filed a complaint for herself and on behalf of her father.
Barak, a Holocaust survivor, is internationally respected and is seen as Israel’s preeminent jurist. Within Israel, he has long been portrayed by right-wing leaders as a leftist activist judge who is to blame for many of their complaints against the judicial system.
In January 2024, however, he was tasked by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be an ad hoc judge on behalf of Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague as a member of the 15-judge panel hearing South Africa’s case accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. He left the position in June that year for personal reasons. Israel adamantly rejects the accusation.
David, who was convicted of attempted arson in 2021, has previously blocked the cars of figures he disagrees with.
Along with minor social media personality Roi Star, David has recently been turning up at the homes of left-wing activists and harassing them, Haaretz reported. On Thursday, the Herzliya Magistrate’s Court heard a request by a left-wing figure asking for a six-month restraining order against David and Star, who earlier this week arrived outside her home and refused to leave, the newspaper said.
David is under a restraining order barring him from the home of MK Gilad Kariv of The Democrats, and was questioned last year on suspicion of threatening Channel 12 correspondent Guy Peleg after a speaking event in Tel Aviv.
He has been hosted by Justice Minister Yariv Levin and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has authority over the police, and praised by other coalition politicians.
After David blocked Barak’s car, Opposition leader Yair Lapid posted on X that police “must deal with this wretched criminal and put an end to this.”
However, Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman lauded David for his actions, accusing critics of the government of hypocrisy for not condemning harassment of coalition figures and right-wing groups, stating on X: “Thank you to the wonderful Mordechai David for peeling back the hypocrisy” of government critics. “Simply wonderful.”
Minister Ze’ev Elkin told Ynet that he doesn’t agree with blocking cars, whether by the right or the left, adding, “There is a lot of hypocrisy on the matter.”
Meanwhile, David doubled down on his actions during an interview with the Kol Beramah radio station, cited by Ynet, in which he said, “I will do it again, if I can. Aharon Barak is Khamenei and a dictator. He deserves it.”
When the radio host asked him to retract the comparison to the Iranian supreme leader, who is suspected of ordering the bloody suppression of recent anti-regime protests, resulting in the deaths of thousands of protesters, David refused, instead repeating “he [Barak] is exactly Khamenei.”
The chair of the Movement for Quality Government Eliad Shraga called David “the long arm of the government,” adding, “he is friends with Levin, Ben Gvir, gets invited to Knesset committee hearings as an honored guest, and is praised by ministers and coalition MKs.”
Added Shraga, “When thugs block the car of the former chief justice, this is not a protest, this is organized harassment aimed at terrorizing anyone who dares to stand up to the coup.”
Shraga also called on Netanyahu to condemn David. A spokesman for Netanyahu did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The Times of Israel Community.