The Likud party on Sunday filed a complaint with the police against former prime minister Ehud Barak, who called once again for a civil rebellion during a protest in Tel Aviv on Motzei Shabbos.

The letter submitted to the police by the party’s lawyer, Avi HaLevy, states: “I hereby submit to the police a complaint to open an investigation against Mr. Ehud Barak, the former prime minister, for the offenses of incitement, publication of sedition and harming the rule of law and society in the State.”

“On June 24, 2023, at a protest held on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv, Mr. Ehud Barak gave an inflammatory speech in which he called on the public: ‘We must intensify the struggle and resort to civil disobedience… I call on every citizen… to prepare himself for this test of civil disobedience… and respond to the call when it comes.'”

The complaint noted that Barak attempted to disguise the criminality of his statements by qualifying the civil rebellion as ‘non-violent,’ but these statements do not change the specific essence of an act that calls for disobedience of the law – “which is a call for violence and a violation of the rule of law and social order in the country.”

“Mr. Barak’s call to citizens not to obey the law expresses an anarchist consciousness, which does not recognize the idea that stands at the foundation of the democratic state – the duty of citizens to obey the law. The examples from the past that Mr. Barak presented as disobedience to the law are not at all similar to the case in front of us, where the motive for calling for disobedience to the law is the former prime minister’s failure to recognize the result of democratic elections for the legislature and his failure to recognize the Knesset’s right to enact laws.”

“Mr. Ehud Barak’s calls for disobedience and violation of public order are not covered under the right to freedom of expression. They constitute a cynical use of the right to freedom of expression as a tool to incite violence and call for rebellion against the elected government, which won the people’s trust in the elections to the 25th Knesset. The enforcement and investigation authorities must quickly take the necessary measures to investigate the serious allegations.”

“A delay in the investigation of the allegations could intensify the distrust of the citizens in the enforcement and investigation authorities, cause the recurrence of similar offenses in violation of the law and undermine the rule of law and social order in the State. In light of the seriousness of the offenses arising from his statements, which constitute offenses under the Penal Law, 1977, of incitement to violence, publication of sedition, and harm to the rule of law and social order in the State, we ask Israel Police to immediately open a criminal investigation against Mr. Ehud Barak.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)