Firebrand Likud MK accuses security forces of ‘treason’ in Knesset amid Iran attacks

As millions of Israelis braced for Iranian missile attacks on Monday, coalition lawmakers debated granting immunity to Likud MK Tally Gotliv, who has been accused of exposing the identity of a Shin Bet officer, in a hearing that was dominated by conspiracy theories against security forces; demanded legislation to enshrine draft exemptions for yeshiva students by making long-term Torah study a basic law on par with military service; and verbally accosted government staff.

Yashar party leader and former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot slammed the coalition for continuing to advance legislation establishing a politically appointed probe into the October 7 onslaught amid the renewed Iranian attacks, calling it “proof of the coalition’s distorted priorities” and “deep contempt for the public and its spirit of resilience.”

“Discussions are beginning in the Knesset, not about the home front, not about residents of the north, not about closed schools. Instead, they’re discussing Tally Gotliv’s immunity request,” said Yesh Atid MK Meirav Cohen.

While the discussion on the political probe was ultimately pulled from the agenda at the last minute following criticism from opposition lawmakers, the Knesset House Committee’s first hearing on Gotliv’s request for immunity from prosecution proceeded as planned.

The office of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who attended the committee session in a rare appearance, announced last month that it was indicting Gotliv over social media posts from 2024 that identified the partner of anti-government protest leader Shikma Bressler as a Shin Bet agent, while promoting baseless conspiracy theories linking him to Hamas and insinuating that he bore responsibility for October 7.

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Gotliv does not deny the charge and repeatedly argued during the hearing that exposing the officer’s identity was justified.

“I exposed the partner of the leader of the rebellion that led us to disaster,” she declared.

The hearing lasted roughly five hours, much of it devoted not to legal arguments regarding Gotliv’s immunity but to her lengthy denunciations of Baharav-Miara, who was seated silently across from the lawmaker throughout the proceedings, and of the security establishment and anti-government protesters.

“You have become enemies of the government, people who harm national security,” Gotliv said to prosecutors, accusing Baharav-Miara of everything from enabling reservists who refused to serve during the judicial overhaul protests to “starving Haredi children,” while failing to prosecute “100,000 draft dodgers in Tel Aviv.”

Among the hearing’s more dramatic moments was when Gotliv screened what appeared to be a TikTok video, as part of her defense, combining footage of anti-government protest leaders and Brothers in Arms activists discussing refusal to serve during the 2023 judicial overhaul crisis with unsubstantiated claims that military and security officials deliberately failed to respond to warnings before the October 7 attack.

The video repeatedly accused them of “treason” and advanced the conspiracy theory that the massacre was enabled from within Israel’s security establishment, prompting outrage from opposition lawmakers.

“This incitement is insane. The people of Israel are ashamed. You’re deranged people for doing this,” Yesh Atid MK Meirav Cohen shouted before being removed from the room. “A video in the Knesset claiming there was treason? Aren’t you ashamed? What is wrong with you?”

Fellow Yesh Atid lawmaker Simon Davidson was later ejected after yelling at Gotliv: “You’re a crazy woman. You’re sick in the head.”

One by one, opposition lawmakers were removed from the hearing as it devolved into arguments over Gotliv’s claims, leaving little time for discussion of the topic ostensibly before the committee: whether she should receive parliamentary immunity from prosecution.

מופע האימים בוועדת הכנסת נמשך – עכשיו טלי גוטליב עברה לשלב הקונספירציות והאשמות בבגידה וכל זה בזמן מלחמה. כעת מקרינים סרטונים שהיא הביאה. pic.twitter.com/u4lKSgsmYN

— דפנה ליאל (@DaphnaLiel) June 8, 2026

Deliberations are set to resume on Tuesday, when Gotliv will continue to present her arguments before representatives of the attorney general’s office and other lawmakers address the committee. A vote on her immunity request is expected at the conclusion of the hearing.

The firebrand lawmaker is immensely popular with the base of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party and is expected to do well in the party primaries, which are set to be held by the end of July.

Since entering the Knesset in November 2022, Gotliv has established a reputation for making incendiary claims against protest groups and accusing the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet of “working for terrorists.”

She has also repeatedly disrupted Knesset and judicial proceedings, such as when she compared a security guard who forcibly ejected her from a court hearing to Jews who implemented Nazi instructions under duress during the Holocaust.

Haredi parties demand Basic Law enshrining Torah study

Gotliv’s hearing was not the only controversial coalition priority to move forward Monday, as ultra-Orthodox Shas party chair Aryeh Deri continued to demand that legislation enshrining Torah study as a Basic Law be brought to a vote this week, not despite of, but rather because of renewed Iranian attacks on Israel.

Speaking at the party’s weekly faction meeting, Deri insisted that “precisely at a time when the people of Israel need greater help to ensure success in the campaign against our enemies, we are demanding that the Basic Law: Torah Study be brought to a vote this week as a condition for supporting any other legislation,” calling it a declaration of the “contribution of Torah scholars to the people of Israel and its security.”

The proposed law, also backed by Haredi party United Torah Judaism, would establish Torah study as a foundational national value and define long-term Torah study as “meaningful service” to the state, equivalent to army service, with implications for the rights and obligations of those engaged in it.

The move marks the latest effort by Haredi parties to preserve exemptions from military service for yeshiva students, which the High Court of Justice has deemed unconstitutional, and to reinstate state stipends that have been halted to families of draft dodgers. The parties have repeatedly threatened to bring down the government over its failure to pass legislation on the matter.

The statement drew fire from opposition lawmakers, who condemned the effort to advance legislation equating Torah study with military service while Israeli soldiers are fighting and dying on the battlefield.

Yashar party leader Eisenkot criticized in particular the coalition’s efforts to advance the legislation at a time “when many Israeli citizens sat in bomb shelters today and our soldiers are fighting and risking their lives,” saying that “the prime minister who sent them to war is working to pass a Basic Law that would grant equal rights to IDF fighters and Torah students.”

“In Netanyahu’s government, it pays to be a draft dodger — it’s both safer and more profitable,” he added.

Former prime minister and leader of the Together slate Naftali Bennett denounced the proposal as a “draft-evasion law on steroids” being advanced under the “cynical and false” name of Torah study.

Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, the former chair of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee ousted over his refusal to advance draft-exemption legislation for yeshiva students, likewise condemned the legislation, calling it “a blatant desecration of God’s name” and “a profound moral distortion.”

Over the past two years, the military has sent out tens of thousands of enlistment orders to members of the ultra-Orthodox community whose exemptions from mandatory service in the Israel Defense Forces were revoked under a 2024 High Court ruling. Most have ignored the orders, leading to large numbers of young men being classified as evaders and being subject to arrest or other sanctions.

The government has also ceased paying daycare subsidies for the children of evaders and providing funds to ultra-Orthodox yeshivas for students eligible for IDF enlistment, effectively ending the transfer of subsidies for increasing numbers of full-time Talmud students.

Lawmakers have continued to allocate billions of shekels in funding for ultra-Orthodox schools, however, and are currently advancing legislation to undo the cancellation of daycare subsidies.