Lapid threatens to boycott Modi’s Knesset visit if Supreme Court president snubbed again

By Sam Sokol 18 February 2026, 1:59 pm

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid speaks at a faction meeting of his Yesh Atid party at the Knesset in Jerusalem on February 16, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid threatens to boycott next week’s visit to the Knesset by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi unless Supreme Court President Isaac Amit is invited to the special session, following several recent high-profile snubs of the country’s top judge by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.

“If the coalition boycotts the president of the High Court during the special session with the prime minister of India, we will not be able to attend the debate,” Lapid tells lawmakers in the Knesset, arguing that another public boycott of Amit by the coalition cause “enormous embarrassment” to the legislature.

“We do not want India to be embarrassed by us, with the prime minister of a nation of a billion people standing here in front of a half-empty Knesset. The Indian Embassy is in a panic over this,” Lapid claims.

Following Amit’s election as court president in January 2025, Justice Minister Yariv Levin refused to recognize his authority and pledged to boycott him. As a result, Amit has been excluded from multiple Knesset events to which he would have traditionally been invited, including speeches by US President Donald Trump and several other world leaders.

Last October, during the opening of the Knesset’s 2025 winter legislative session, Speaker Amir Ohana acknowledged Amit merely as a justice, rather than as the chief justice, prompting President Isaac Herzog to protest the slight.

The opposition boycotted a Knesset session two weeks ago meant to celebrate the parliament building’s 60th birthday due to Amit’s exclusion. Lapid was the only member of the opposition to address the plenum, using his speech to attack Netanyahu over his treatment of the court president.