Likud MK Gotliv again defies summons for police questioning, citing Knesset immunity
Under investigation for outing Shin Bet officer, she tells state prosecutor to ‘climb another tree’ after office says her immunity claim ‘has no legal basis’
Likud MK Tally Gotliv rebuffed a summons for police questioning for a second time this week, once again citing parliamentary immunity, after Deputy State Prosecutor Alon Altman sent her a letter saying she had no immunity from criminal investigations and requesting her presence.
According to Hebrew media, Altman told Gotliv that her “refusal to appear for questioning, based on the claim of substantive immunity, has no legal basis. The Immunity Law does not grant a member of Knesset immunity from appearing for a criminal investigation.”
The deputy prosecutor’s letter concluded with a request “to appear for questioning at a time coordinated with the Israel Police, as soon as possible.”
Gotliv, remaining defiant, responded to the letter saying: “You will not intimidate me,” and told Altman to “go climb another tree.”
“I cannot be prosecuted, and there is no reason to investigate me. I cannot be arrested or detained for questioning,” she said.
She added that she sends “warm regards to Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar,” who called for the original investigation to be opened against her.
The firebrand MK was originally summoned for questioning in December over social media posts a year ago in which she revealed that a protest leader’s life partner was a member of the Shin Bet security service, which security officials said posed a risk to national security.
“Revealing the details of the dangerous Shikma Bressler’s partner was done for the sake of, and in the framework of, performing my duties,” Gotliv claimed at the time.
Bressler was a leader of protests against the government’s contentious judicial overhaul in 2023.
Opposition to the judicial overhaul effort drew hundreds of thousands of people to the streets in 2023 and included calls by some IDF reservists not to volunteer for duty. The overhaul was shelved when the Hamas terror group attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, starting the ongoing war — though some in the government have threatened to revive the legislation.
Last January, Gotliv repeatedly circulated unfounded claims that linked Bressler and her partner to Hamas and its October 7 onslaught, including a conspiracy theory that said US intelligence agencies had intercepted a conversation between Bressler’s partner and then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
The claims led Bressler to sue Gotliv for defamation, seeking NIS 2.6 million ($715,000) in damages.
Shin Bet chief Bar at the time advised Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to open an investigation into Gotliv over her posts identifying Bressler’s partner.
“The identities of past or present security service workers are confidential, and their publication is forbidden,” Bar wrote at the time, in a letter to the attorney general citing the Shin Bet Law.
