Rivlin says new elections would be an ‘unforgivable blow’ to Israel

President Reuven Rivlin comes out strongly against the possibility of new elections amid a standoff over the state budget that could send Israelis to the polls for the fourth time since April 2019.

“I won’t restate the warnings which you know well. I will just say this, as a citizen of this country – it is not possible. It cannot be that we continue to deal with this as if it were a logical possibility while we are counting our dead,” a statement from Rivlin’s office quotes him as saying at a meeting with Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel, apparently referring to those who have died from COVID-19.

The president adds: “If you take us there, you the elected officials of whatever party, if you take us to that dreadful nadir, you will bring down on this country a hard, painful and unforgivable blow. Guard against it, guard well against it.”

Rivlin makes the remarks at a meeting with Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel, during which they announce a new charter to protect freedom of press and the safety of journalists.

“As part of the pointed public debate, we also see a discourse that is defamatory and violent, a poisonous atmosphere that has reached cases, severe cases, of attacks on journalists,” Rivlin says. “This is not an issue of right or left, of one political camp or another. The silencing, defamation, score-settling or, on the other hand, the exploitation of the power of the media to create an environment that does not allow discussion, and giving space to one-sided and views that lack diversity – these are grave acts.”