Israel’s two most senior judicial officials, Supreme Court President Isaac Amit and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, issued stark warnings on Monday, accusing the government of deliberately working to destroy Israeli democracy with their assault on the judiciary.

Amit deplored the erosion of truth in society in a speech on Monday, asserting that elements in Israel, including elected officials, are spreading false information deliberately in order to undermine the Supreme Court and its rulings and “were a danger to democracy.”

Meanwhile, Baharav-Miara, who has been targeted and vilified by ministers, said the government had opened up a race to “eliminate democratic institutions” ahead of the upcoming elections.

Amit, who has been boycotted by the government since he was appointed in January 2025, spoke out specifically against false allegations that the court, in its capacity as High Court of Justice, interfered with IDF rules of engagement in 2018, which right-wing politicians and organizations have wrongly claimed enabled the October 7 attacks, and that he “appointed himself president.”

Speaking at the Israel Bar Association, Amit said that such false information could even undermine public trust in elections

And he said that a clear wall must be established “between fact and fiction” both in court and in the public space, and that a “legal, social, and public price be paid for lying.”

Numerous cabinet ministers and coalition MKs, as well as right-wing organizations, have denounced the Supreme Court and its justices over its rulings over the last three years, attacked the justices personally on numerous occasions, and called on the government not to abide by its rulings.

Court proceedings have also been repeatedly interrupted and justices berated by members of the viewing public, including by cabinet ministers and coalition MKs, a phenomenon almost unheard of before the current government took office.

“The spread of fake [information] is a direct danger to democracy and social cohesion,” Amit told the Bar........

© The Times of Israel