Likud MK Taunts Yesh Atid Over Implicit Threat in Knesset Hearing

During a Knesset House Committee meeting on Monday about the immunity of MK Tali Gotliv, there was a sharp exchange between committee chair Ofir Katz of Likud and Yesh Atid MK Mickey Levy over the future behavior of a possible opposition government. Levy said that if the opposition wins the next election, Yesh Atid MK Yoav Segalovich is slated to become public security minister, and that he would “settle accounts” with the coalition.

Levy said, “Soon Segalovich will be appointed, and he will not forget what happened here and what you did.” Katz responded sarcastically, asking what would happen to them, saying, “Cell, cell! All of us to cell!” Levy then escalated the threat, saying they would be summoned for questioning. Katz replied, “Why questioning? Straight to prison. Why questioning? We are right-wing. Why do you need to waste time on questioning?”

Katz then pressed Levy on the contradiction between such threats and the legal principle that a public security minister is not supposed to interfere in police investigations. “You said everyone who did not go to questioning will go to questioning, and that will happen when Segalovich is public security minister,” Katz said. He linked the exchange to ongoing efforts by the attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, to limit the powers of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, including calls for the High Court of Justice to intervene and even remove him, over claims that he has interfered too much in police work.

Levy tried to clarify, saying, “You can set an investigation policy.” Katz repeated his warning in front of the legal advisers at the session, saying that once Segalovich is minister, it would be permissible to interfere in investigations and send right-wingers to prison.