Knesset speaker refers to Supreme Court president as merely ‘justice’; MKs protest, are forcibly removed

Opposition lawmakers Gilad Kariv and Naor Shiri are forcibly removed from the Knesset plenum after yelling at Speaker Amir Ohana, after he acknowledges Supreme Court President Isaac Amit merely as a justice and not by his proper title at the opening of the winter parliamentary session.

Ohana did not invite either Amit or Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to last week’s speech by US President Donald Trump, prompting criticism by opposition lawmakers and President Isaac Herzog.

The move came as the government is seeking to fire Baharav-Miara and Justice Minister Yariv Levin refuses to recognize Amit’s authority as chief justice, with the coalition continuing to push to curb the powers of the courts as part of its judicial overhaul plans.

MKs Gilad Kariv and Naor Shiri removed from the Knesset plenum pic.twitter.com/0c837iAqDL

— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) October 20, 2025

In a tweet after his removal, Kariv tweets that Ohana is “trampling the honor of the Knesset, the honor of the judicial system, and the honor of Israeli society as a whole.”

Opposition lawmakers repeatedly interrupt and boo Ohana during his speech, with Yesh Atid MK Meirav Cohen yelling that he had “not learned anything” and was “doing exactly what you did before October 7.”

Ohana “has learned nothing in the past two years. He is forcefully taking us back to division and destructive rupture and to the days that preceded the disaster of October 7,” tweets Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, accusing him and the government of “weakening the State of Israel.”

Responding to his critics, Ohana warns that voters’ democratic power is “being eroded…because of the conduct of the judicial system.”

“We want with all our hearts for Israel to be a state governed by the rule of law and this house represents that more than anything. But the rule of law, not the rule of jurists,” he says.