Yair Golan: Government ‘must be overthrown’ if it refuses to obey the law

Yair Golan, the chairman of the opposition The Democrats party, warns of a nationwide general strike if the Israeli government does not obey the High Court of Justice when it rules on the firing of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.

“The democratic State of Israel will not fall! The Jewish, democratic, Zionist and liberal State of Israel, you will not fall,” Golan tells anti-government protesters at Tel Aviv’s Habima Square. “We will not let it fall!”

“The government has launched a direct, violent and unrestrained attack: On us. On our democracy. On our values. On our future. And on the lives of our children. And it will not win,” he continues — arguing that Israel finds itself in “an unprecedented historical moment” when the government is “turning its back on the law, on the High Court of Justice, and on the public.”

“A government in Israel that refuses to obey the High Court of Justice’s ruling — is illegal and dangerous” and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is not above the law. No one is above the law. And a government that refuses to obey the law — is a dangerous government that must be stopped. It must be overthrown!”

“We are stopping the economy, the ports, transportation, the schools, the academy, businesses, the streets. We are stopping the country — to save it,” he says. “The law comes before everything. Democracy comes before everything. The state comes before the government.”

Arguing that now is “not the time for petty politics” nor “personal considerations,” Golan calls on Opposition Leader Yair Lapid and National Unity party chairman Benny Gantz to “establish a single democratic front” against the government that can serve as “the backbone of the new Israel” which will conscript the ultra-Orthodox and investigate October 7.

“Benny, Gadi, Yair, let’s establish Israel’s liberal democratic bloc. This struggle is not another protest. This is a struggle for the face of Israel. This is a struggle for our home.”