Opposition MK slams moderate Likud MKs for standing by amid dangers to country

Opposition lawmaker Yoav Segalovitz attacks moderate Likud ministers for sitting on the sidelines while the government advances problematic legislation.

“You formed a racist, homophobic, extremist government,” the Yesh Atid lawmaker says from the Knesset rostrum.

Naming a handful of Likud ministers, including Nir Barkat, Avi Dichter, and Israel Katz, Segalovitz says they are staying silent in the face of dangers to Israel’s security, international standing, and cohesion.

“I don’t know what he thinks, but I know what he does. He does nothing,” Segalovitz says of Dichter.

An opposition member of the Knesset committee that prepared the “reasonableness” bill, Segalovitz says that the panel failed to consider several security consequences of pursuing a policy that weakens judicial checks on political power.

“The real Iron Dome [that protects Israel] on the international stage” is the principle of complementarity, whereby international courts decline to prosecute Israeli soldiers for alleged war crimes because Israel has a strong, independent court system that can be trusted to exercise necessary oversight.

“None of this [necessary] conversation [about the consequences of destroying the court’s independence] happened in the Constitution Committee,” Segalovitz says.