Lapid says he’s not opposed to legal reform but government is trying to ‘destroy everything’

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid tells reporters that he is not, in principle, opposed to legislation splitting the role of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara but insists that it is only possible to debate such a law “under normal conditions,” when the prime minister is not under indictment.

“The debate now is not objective; it is a debate polluted by the prime minister’s trial and only proves that there is another law that it is a shame we did not pass: that a person with indictments against him cannot be prime minister of the state of Israel,” Lapid tells reporters in the Knesset.

When Lapid and former Naftali Bennett formed their “government of change” in 2021, they agreed to advance a law splitting the AG’s role into two, in their coalition agreement with Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope party.

When the previous government supported this, however, “the prime minister did not have three indictments against him… neither Bennett nor I have, have had, nor will we probably have indictments,” Lapid states, arguing that “what is happening right now is an attempt to sabotage Netanyahu’s trial.”

“Back then, we still thought he was a decent person,” Lapid adds.

“In the end, I was never against changing the legal system. There is no system that cannot be fixed, including the legal system. And for years, I have talked and I have written about the need to make amendments to the legal system. It just shouldn’t be done in a way that is a clear attempt to dismantle the separation of powers, destroy the Supreme Court and destroy the entire legal system, which is what this government is trying to do, destroy everything.”

Asked by a Haredi reporter if he believes that Arabs should be conscripted in the same way he wants to conscript Haredi Jews, Lapid replies that he supports encouraging Arabs to participate in civilian service but “I don’t think the State of Israel needs to enlist young Arabs, give them weapons and military training.”

Addressing the government’s decision to approve a new military offensive in the Gaza Strip, Lapid says that “nobody yet knows what the words ‘occupation of the Strip’ mean, but there is one thing we do know: this war is costing a lot of money.”

“During a war, the government can come to the citizens and tell them to tighten their belts, but on one condition: that it does so itself. That it also cuts itself back, [and] that is not what is happening,” he says.