Tally Gotliv, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party known for her fiery rhetoric, accused the left of having “betrayed the State of Israel” at a rally supporting the government’s judicial reform in the central city of Netanya.
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Speaking in front of a few hundred supporters alongside National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir while over 24,000 counter-protesters demonstrated a stone toss away, Gotliv claimed that the reason for the gap between the number of participants in the two demonstrations is the left's “money.”
"You know what differentiates us from the people on the left? The left has lost it, the left betrayed the State of Israel, the left forgot the most basic values of the people of Israel and a Jewish and democratic state," Gotliv said.
"They forgot that. They abandoned the security of the State of Israel. They will do everything they can to topple the right-wing government, and they have money. Look at their demonstration - how much money they have. They are planned, programmed, orchestrated."
Gotliv also called to fire Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara who has come at loggerheads with the government in recent months over several policies and accused former prime minister Ehud Barak of sedition against the government.
"He should be in prison," she claimed. "I tell all fellow members of Knesset to raise their heads, adopt a mentality of rule and not of slaves. Governance is not something you wish for – governance is something you demand. It’s unacceptable that the left is rebelling. We are not bringing about a dictatorship and religious coercion, enough with blaming the right."
Ben-Gvir, for his part, claimed that the attorney general "puts a spoke in the wheels” of every legislation he proposes.
"I want to save the people of Israel and she says there are legal issues," he said, mentioning among other things a bill instituting the death penalty for convicted terrorists, a bill granting immunity to soldiers and the establishment of a national guard. "Therefore, we must not give up and we will not give up. We have a long road to walk on sometimes, but we will not give up. Reform now!".
Meanwhile, opposition leader Yair Lapid, who spoke at the counter-protest, mocked Ben-Gvir.
"This is a historic innovation," he said. "Show me one case in history where the government demonstrates against its citizens?"
"I told our [judicial reform negotiation team] at the President's Residence - you don't represent me, you don't represent the party, you represent hundreds of thousands of great Israelis who took to the streets to defend their country. They are there to make sure that we are not being played.
They are there to check if it’s possible to reach a historic agreement that will guide us a hundred years into the future. They are also there to tell the other side - we are done being suckers."