Israeli President warns of ‘coup’ against democracy

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of trying to weaken the country’s supreme court and “silence the free media”.

In a “passionate defence” of the judicial system and the press, says the Times of Israel, Rivlin said “government attempts to undermine them amount to a ‘coup’ against the pillars of Israeli democracy”.

Speaking at the opening of the Knesset winter session, he said: “In this climate of delegitimisation, the atmosphere of ‘everything is political’ trickles down to the public, who receive the message that there is no more statesmanship, that there is only ruling and democracy. And in this climate, democracy means that the strong decides.”

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“Changes to the supreme court have become a toxic political issue in a country where the separation between the judiciary and legislature is hotly contested, and where the political right has seen the court as an obstruction to its agenda,” says The Guardian.

Rivlin also took aim at criticism of the media from Netanyahu and others in the government following coverage of two criminal investigations into the Prime Minister’s alleged corruption.

“The Israeli media is not free from criticism,” Rivlin said. “It sometimes sins. However, it is one thing to work on repairing the media and to require it to be more diverse, professional and more practical and another to seek to control it.”

Netanyahu hit back, says Haaretz, “attacking media and opposition members who condemned his conduct”.

“When one side expresses their opinion it’s freedom of speech, and when the other side does it's considered incitement,” he said. “That’s the method. I have no respect for hypocrisy.”