Likud MK Tally Gotliv was forcibly removed from the courtroom presided over by Lod District Court Judge Amit Michles on Tuesday, after several orders to silence.
“I have parliamentary immunity,” she charged.
The hearing regarded the release under restrictive conditions of Yonatan Urich, one of the chief suspects in the “Qatargate” investigations and an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. When ordered to leave, Gotliv fired back at Michles, “If the judge wants to act like [Supreme Court Chief Justice] Isaac Amit, who dishonored the parliament – you can’t remove me.”
After Michles stepped out for a break, she yelled to court security, “What are you – monkeys?”
When security moved to remove her, she resisted. When she eventually stood and walked out, she said, “Be ashamed of yourselves, animals!”
Outside the courtroom, she called back to them, “This isn’t your job! You are Judenrat!”
Origin, sensitivity of term 'Judenrat'
The term ‘Judenrat,’ sensitive and exceptional in its use by a public servant, refers to the Jewish councils imposed by the Nazis during the Holocaust to administer orders in ghettos. It is widely perceived with deep ambivalence, seen by some as a form of coerced collaboration under duress and by others as a tragic attempt to mitigate suffering in impossible circumstances.
In a rare statement, the Judicial Spokesperson’s Office backed the security staff and sharply condemned Gotliv’s words and actions. “The Office will not tolerate any attempt to disrupt the proper conduct of proceedings or to target staff on the basis of their official duties,” it said.
Opposition head and Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid referenced in his response Adam Czerniaków, who was the head of the Judenrat in the Warsaw Ghetto under Nazi instruction and, as part of his duties, was tasked to administer the deportation of Jews to extermination camps. Czerniaków committed suicide on July 23, 1942, rather than carry out this act.
In the note he left behind, Czerniaków wrote, “They demand that with my own hands I should kill my nation’s children; there is nothing for me to do but to die.”
Lapid wrote, “This is the term Gotliv hurled against the security guards who removed her from court after she disrupted the hearing.”
Lapid’s father was a Holocaust survivor.
Channel 13 legal correspondent Aviad Glickman reported that the Supreme Court president called the security guard and offered him encouragement after the incident.
Channel 12 political correspondent Amit Segal noted that the guard Gotliv directed the slur at is a platoon deputy commander in reserves who has served over 400 days in the military since the start of the Israel-Hamas War and who is also the grandson of a Holocaust survivor himself.
“But, the [upcoming Likud] primaries are clearly more important [to her],” Segal wrote. If the government doesn’t fall, primaries are set to take place in October 2026.
JUSTICE MINISTER Yariv Levin said he was “deeply shaken” by Gotliv’s slur and “wholly condemned it.”
“This is not our way!” he wrote.
“The equation of ‘Judenrat’ and ‘Animals’ to security guards in the court not only harms the cause but is a great disgrace, a cheapening of the Holocaust, and the polar opposite of the messages a sitting member of parliament is supposed to adopt and transmit.”
He added, “This behavior stands in direct opposition to the values of the Likud that I was raised with and educated by.”
With the party’s primaries not very far away in political timelines, Levin turned inward to the party in his message.
“Gotliv’s behavior, her lack of respect and collegiality towards the prime minister, ministers in general, and her own fellow party members – jabs made at Likud members who carried the cross of the party in its hardest days, and provocations used as a constant tactic – all these only harm the Likud on the brink of an election year,” he said.
Likud is the largest party in Israel.
He added, “With her own actions, she is distancing wide swaths of the public – right at a time when many may consider joining.”
Levin promised to continue in the path of Likud giant and former prime minister Menahem Begin.
Condemnations came as well from Development of the Negev and Galilee and National Resilience Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf (Otzma Yehudit), Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer (Religious Zionist Party), Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli (Likud), and Yisrael Beytenu MK Yulia Malinovsky.
Malikovsky said, “Gotliv’s brutish and bullying behavior has passed every red line, and, for some reason, everyone is afraid to say anything to her. There is nothing substantial behind this behavior – no lawmaking, no parliamentary motions, or motions for debate. There is no actual work being done, zero depth and understanding, nothing but provocations.”
She added, “What is concerning is that, according to the latest Likud polls, she ranks high; this is the new ethos of the party.”