Netanyahu says Gantz’s comments about civil war constitute ‘sedition’

Carrie Keller-Lynn is a former political and legal correspondent for The Times of Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads a Likud party faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, January 9, 2023. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads a Likud party faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, January 9, 2023. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Responding to MK Benny Gantz’s calls to take to the streets and accusations that the premier is inciting a civil war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Gantz is “planting the seeds of disaster” by not condemning protesters who compare Netanyahu’s government to the Nazi regime.

“I heard what MK Gantz said and I have to say that I’m shocked,” Netanyahu says during his Likud party’s closed faction meeting, in a clip released by Likud spokespeople. Netanyahu adds that Gantz’s statements were “a call to sedition from within the Knesset.”

A large protest against the government’s judicial reform platform in Tel Aviv on Saturday included placards comparing the government and its justice ministers to Nazis, behavior that Gantz has yet to publicly condemn.

“Someone who does not condemn the comparison of the justice minister to a Nazi and of the government of Israel to the Third Reich — he is the one who is planting the seeds of disaster,” Netanyahu adds, calling on Gantz to “immediately” rescind his comments.

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