Ugly scenes unfolded in the Lod – Central District Court on Tuesday, as incendiary Likud MK Tally Gotliv compared a security guard who forcibly ejected her from a hearing on the Qatargate affair to Jews who implemented Nazi instructions under duress during the Holocaust.
Gotliv had persistently interrupted the proceedings, leading Judge Amit Michles to order her removed from the hearing.
The incendiary MK refused to leave, however, claiming she had parliamentary immunity. After she declined the requests of security guards to leave of her own accord, Gotliv was physically removed by the guards.
As she was ejected from the courtroom, Gotliv called the security guard who removed her “an animal,” and compared him to the “Judenrat,” the Nazi-established Jewish administrative councils that were forced to ensure Nazi orders were implemented.
Israel Hayom subsequently reported that the security guard in question had served 280 days in IDF reserve duty since the beginning of the current war with Hamas in Gaza, and that his grandmother was a Holocaust survivor.
Gotliv’s comments were roundly condemned across the political spectrum, including by Likud’s Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, as well as the leaders of the opposition.
Levin said Gotliv’s comments were “a great disgrace” and showed “contempt for the Holocaust,” adding that the controversial MK was repeatedly embarrassing the Likud party with her conduct.
“MK Gotliv’s behavior, her lack of respect and lack of collegiality toward the prime minister, cabinet ministers and her party members, her attacks against loyal Likud members who carried the movement on their backs during its difficult days, and the provocations she makes as her modus operandi — all of these do tremendous damage to Likud as we approach an election year,” Levin said. “MK Gotliv, stop embarrassing us! Apologize!”
National Unity leader Benny Gantz said Gotliv should be ashamed of herself, called on her to apologize, and described the MK as an example “of the extremes that are filling the Knesset of Israel.”
The Judicial Authority issued a statement, backing the court security guards and calling on them to maintain public order in the courts.
“The Judicial Authority strongly condemns the behavior and words of MK Gotliv, and will not tolerate any attempt to harm the proper course of hearings, or officials performing their duties,” the statement said.
Gotliv refused, however, to apologize, claiming again that she had been unlawfully removed from the courtroom by what she called “the court’s armed militia,” and saying that even if the security guard was an IDF reservist and descendant of a Holocaust survivor, it did not give him the right to “unlawfully” eject her.
Gotliv has repeatedly interrupted court proceedings over the last two years, including disrupting hearings in the High Court of Justice, and has been removed from courtrooms on multiple occasions.
Tuesday’s hearing in the Lod – Central District Court with Judge Michles ruling to extend the restrictive conditions on Jonatan Urich, a key aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a central suspect in the Qatargate scandal, until September 10, overturning a lower court decision.
Those restrictions include a ban on contacting other figures connected to the affair, and anyone working in the Prime Minister’s Office, including Netanyahu himself.