Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on January 8, 2023. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu tells Channel 13 news that former prime minister Ehud Barak’s calls for civil disobedience over the government’s judicial overhaul push are “worse” than former president Moshe Katsav’s rape of a woman, which the latter was convicted of and served in jail for.
“Harming the State of Israel and calling for civil disobedience is very grave. I’m not sure that someone coming and wanting to dismantle the State of Israel isn’t as bad as rape,” says Eliyahu, a member of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party.
Asked whether Barak’s remarks during anti-government demonstrations are really as bad as Katsav’s rape, Eliyahu says: “It’s worse. Someone who wants to dismantle the State of Israel harms the most wonderful thing mankind has created, which we created with our own two hands.”
Former prime minister Ehud Barak speaks at a protest in Tel Aviv against the government’s planned judicial overhaul, February 25, 2023. (Tomer Neuberg/ Flash90)
Two days ago, Likud MK Nissim Vaturi suggested that “in other countries,” Barak would be executed for his fierce criticism of the government’s judicial overhaul efforts and his calls for civil disobedience, but in democratic Israel, he should just go to prison for “at least 20 years.”
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