Chikli calls High Court’s Amit a ‘clown,’ joins calls for government to defy rulings

By Ariela Karmel

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31 December 2025, 1:53 pm

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Ariela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.

Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli attends a session at the Knesset in Jerusalem, May 7, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli urges the government to disobey court rulings, joining those who have echoed comments made by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in his recent attack on Supreme Court President Isaac Amit.

“The Supreme Court, headed by the clown Isaac Amit, is turning into a circus,” writes Chikli in a post on X. “I call on the prime minister and justice minister to state clearly and unequivocally that any ruling issued without being based in Knesset legislation will not be respected.”

Smotrich was widely accused of inciting against Amit when he vowed on Monday to “trample” him, after which the Supreme Court president accused the finance minister of crossing a “red line.”

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi later called for Smotrich’s comments “to be put into action,” and similarly urged the government to openly defy rulings by the High Court. Smotrich then doubled down on his statement while saying he wasn’t calling for violence.

In his post, Chikli condemns a series of recent court rulings freezing or striking down government legislation, including today’s interim order barring State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman from continuing his investigation into the failures surrounding the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led onslaught.

“The Supreme Court has no legal authority to invalidate the work of the state comptroller, who operates as an independent authority under Basic Law!!!” writes Chikli.

He also rails against the court’s decision on Sunday to temporarily freeze the government’s controversial proposal to shutter Army Radio, and its unanimous decision earlier this month to annul the government’s firing of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. His comments come amid the government’s years-long effort to weaken the courts through a controversial judicial overhaul, which critics have called a threat to democracy.