Live UpdateFrom the Liveblog of Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Lapid: If Deri isn’t fired, we’ll be in unprecedented constitutional crisis

18 January 2023, 4:28 pm Edit

Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid speaks during a faction meeting at the Knesset on January 2, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid speaks during a faction meeting at the Knesset on January 2, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Opposition party leaders join the call for Netanyahu to respect the High Court’s ruling.

“If Aryeh Deri isn’t fired, the government will be breaking the law,” says opposition leader Yair Lapid. Such a government would lose the right to demand that citizens obey the law, he adds, and Israel “will be thrust into an unprecedented constitutional crisis and will no longer be a democracy.”

Labor chief Merav Michaeli says, “Certainly the court’s decision is difficult for many citizens. But in a democracy, a court’s ruling is respected by the right and the left.

“Netanyahu and Deri must show responsibility and respect the ruling.”