Minister of Regional Cooperation Dudi Amsalem (Likud) said Saturday that Supreme Court President Esther Hayut and former court president Aharon Barak should be charged with “a coup attempt,” and called for a probe into the organizers of the protests against the government’s judicial reform plan.
He also said an “elitist minority in Tel Aviv” was holding the country hostage, and that Israel is currently “not a democratic country” as a result.
“I am fighting for democracy,” he declared. “Today, there is no democracy in the state of Israel.”
“Everyone who led this protest, including [former prime minister] Ehud Barak, Aharon Barak and the Supreme Court president, are people who should be charged with an attempted coup,” he told Channel 12’s Meet the Press.
Barak is widely considered as being responsible for the “judicial revolution” in the mid 1990s, in which the Supreme Court gained sweeping powers, that the current government seeks to correct.
“We have to form an investigative committee into [the protests]. It will happen, even if it isn’t today,” he said.
His comments came as tens of thousands took to the streets for the 15th consecutive week on Saturday night protesting against the plans for judicial reform.
