Supreme Court chief says Smotrich crossed ‘red line’ by pledging to ‘trample’ him

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Tuesday doubled down on incendiary comments he made a day earlier when he vowed to “trample” Supreme Court President Isaac Amit, prompting Amit to accuse him of crossing a “red line” and to pledge that the far-right leader’s threat “won’t divert me from my path.”

Smotrich’s remarks drew widespread criticism from the Judicial Authority, President Isaac Herzog and opposition lawmakers, who accused him of incitement. But he said he stood by them.

“I have no more delicate words to choose from to describe the injustice that Isaac Amit and his colleagues are inflicting on Israeli democracy,” the minister said Tuesday in an interview with Army Radio.

He accused the Supreme Court of “violently trampling upon and silencing the voice of the majority” and “stealing the will and freedom of the people of Israel.”

Amit wrote a letter in reaction to Smotrich’s invective, insisting that it would not weaken the country’s judges and courts. Writing to judges and court officials from the entire judiciary, Amit thanked them for what he said were the numerous messages of support he received.

“Even though these statements crossed a red line in my eyes, they won’t divert me from my path,” he wrote. “I’ll keep leading the Judicial Authority with my head held high, with judiciousness and with decency, with full devotion to the mission given to me to serve the public.”

He added: “Although the words were directed at me personally, their meaning is much broader – they are intended to harm each and every one of us, and especially the institution in which we serve. The message implied by the words seeks to undermine the status and role of the courts in a democratic state.”

Smotrich, in a post on X written in response, mirrored the judge’s words. He claimed it is Amit who has “crossed red lines” by “kidnapping the job of Supreme Court president” in reference to a High Court’s ruling, which Amit was not involved with, that ordered Justice Minister Yariv Levin to hold a vote on Amit’s appointment in the Judicial Selection Committee, which was approved.

“Trampling is what Amit is doing day by day, hour by hour to the law, the people, democracy, the Knesset and the government,” continued Smotrich. He added: “I will not be diverted from my path.”

The feud is taking place against the backdrop of the government’s years-long effort to weaken the courts through its controversial judicial overhaul, which critics have called a threat to democracy. Across the government’s term, the court has struck down or delayed several government decisions, including, recently, an interim injunction, pending a final ruling, on the cabinet’s unanimous vote to shutter Army Radio.

Smotrich referred to that injunction in his interview with the station.

“We’re speaking on Army Radio, a station that all the [military] chiefs of staff thought should be shut down. The government decided to close it, and now there is an interim injunction,” he said.

“This is not democracy,” Smotrich charged.

He further accused Army Radio of attempting to “delegitimize” and “silence” him while hosting him for an interview.

Asked by the interviewer if in calling to “trample” Amit, he was referring to actual violence against the top judge, Smotrich pushed back, saying: “I said that when one side tramples, the other side tramples back. It’s clear that this is a metaphor, and no one is talking about practical violence, God forbid.”

A day earlier, the minister told reporters at the Knesset that Amit “has an extreme lack of awareness, is doing things in the court that have never been done before, and the result is that we will trample him. There won’t be a choice.”

Amit, he said, was “a violent megalomaniac who is stealing Israeli democracy.”

Smotrich added that while he wished he could reach a compromise with the court, “when one side becomes so extreme, it leaves you no option but to fight back with everything you’ve got.”

The comments were met with criticism from Herzog, who said that Smotrich’s “use of such a violent expression as ‘trampling’ is dangerous,” adding that “elected officials have a duty to conduct a decent and clean discourse.”

It was also met with backlash, prior to Amit’s letter, from the Judicial Authority, which represents the Supreme Court and the court system, saying: “This is an extremely grave statement whose sole purpose is to intensify violent and inflammatory discourse against the judiciary and its head, and is all the more [severe] when the words are uttered by an elected official.”

Many opposition figures also condemned the far-right minister’s statements, warning that they constituted incitement to violence against the judge.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, meanwhile, called for Smotrich’s comments “to be put into action,” and urged the government to openly defy rulings by the High Court.

“The time to act has long since arrived. We say no (!) to illegal orders from the High Court of Justice and save Israeli democracy,” Karhi wrote in a post on X.

Smotrich and Karhi support the government’s attempts to curtail the powers of the judiciary and have repeatedly attacked the High Court and Amit specifically, often accusing them of undermining democracy when they were at odds with the government’s policies.

Amit is being boycotted by Justice Minister Yariv Levin as part of the judicial overhaul launched in January 2023, soon after the government took office. The overhaul — which critics say is an attempt to break down the system of checks and balances and undermine democracy — sparked massive public protests.

As part of the overhaul, Levin has also been seeking to oust Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, but was blocked by the High Court, which earlier this month voted unanimously to annul the government’s decision to fire her.