Smotrich posts AI video of judges dragged away, then hits back at critics

Update, 15 September, 19:08 Israel time

Smotrich published the clip on his own social media accounts, not only through the party's launch materials. The Times of Israel reported that the finance minister posted the AI-generated video on X with the caption "Freeing up the stoppage", the slogan attached to his judicial overhaul plan, and that the footage purports to show the figures being hauled away by security guards from a protest against the overhaul.

The same report identifies a third judicial figure in the video alongside Supreme Court President Isaac Amit and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara: Supreme Court Justice Daphne Barak-Erez. The Times of Israel describes the guards as removing the three from a demonstration, a framing of the scene that differs from earlier descriptions of police dragging officials through burning streets.

Smotrich has now responded publicly to the criticism. The Israeli political commentator Amit Segal reported that Smotrich addressed Gadi Eisenkot directly, calling on the opposition leader to publish his own platform for what Smotrich termed repairing Israeli democracy. That is the first response from Smotrich to the condemnation carried in earlier reports, which had gone unanswered in the material available at publication.

The Times of Israel also places the video's release shortly after the presentation of the plan to curtail the High Court's powers, rather than as part of the launch itself.

The story as first reported

Israel's Religious Zionism party released a campaign video generated with artificial intelligence that shows senior figures in the country's justice system being dragged through burning streets by police officers, in a scene staging protest and disorder. Ynet reported that the clip was published as part of the launch of the party's plan for the court system, a campaign it titled in Hebrew with a phrase meaning "releasing the blockage." The party's platform presents continued judicial overhaul as a precondition for joining any future governing coalition.

The same day, The Times of Israel reported that the party published a campaign platform calling for changes to the courts that would go further than the overhaul the outgoing coalition pursued during its term, including a clause allowing the Knesset, Israel's parliament, to re-enact laws that the Supreme Court has struck down as unconstitutional. The Jerusalem Post also published the video, describing it as showing the arrest of Israeli judicial officials and crediting the images to the party.

Who Religious Zionism is

Religious Zionism is a far-right party chaired by Bezalel Smotrich, a member of the Knesset who served in the outgoing government. Its platform for the courts was presented alongside fellow party member Simcha Rothman, who chaired the Knesset committee that handled the previous overhaul legislation. The party is running in Israel's election campaign and is positioning the judicial programme as its central demand in coalition talks.

The two officials depicted

The figures shown being dragged in the clip are the president of the Supreme Court, Isaac Amit, and the attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, according to the Ynet reports. Both hold posts that have been at the centre of confrontation between the government and the legal establishment. The attorney general in Israel is not a political appointee in the manner of many Western justice ministers: the office heads the state prosecution, advises the government on the legality of its decisions, and its opinions are binding on ministers unless overturned by a court. The president of the Supreme Court heads a body that also sits as the High Court of Justice, hearing petitions directly against government action.

What the platform proposes

The central element reported by The Times of Israel is an override mechanism: a provision that would let the Knesset restore legislation after the Supreme Court has invalidated it. The report notes that the outgoing government initially proposed such a measure and that it failed to advance amid mass public protests that dominated Israeli political and public debate for much of the year. Constitutional scholars quoted in that report have argued the measure would in effect strip the court of judicial review over legislation.

Israel has no single written constitution. Instead it has a set of Basic Laws, and the Supreme Court has asserted the authority to strike down ordinary legislation that conflicts with them. An override clause goes to the core of that arrangement, which is why the earlier attempt produced the largest sustained street protests in the country's recent political history.

Smotrich framed the package by saying Israel stands at what he called a "fateful juncture", according to The Times of Israel's account of the launch.

The reaction

Gadi Eisenkot condemned the video in terms reported by Ynet's alerts channel as "despicable and violent". In remarks carried by N12, Eisenkot said of those behind the clip that "they have learned nothing from October 7", and accused them of being willing, in their political distress, to drag Israeli society into an abyss again. Yair Golan described the video as dangerous incitement, using a Hebrew phrase that accuses its target of marking someone out as legitimate to harm, according to a further Ynet alert.

Those responses point to a recurring feature of the overhaul dispute: opponents of the legislative programme have repeatedly argued that rhetoric aimed at judges and the attorney general creates a personal security risk, while supporters argue the institutions themselves are unelected and overreaching.

What the reports do not say

The material does not give the length of the video, where it was distributed beyond the party's own publication, or whether any broadcast regulator has been asked to review it. It does not include a response from the Supreme Court, from the attorney general's office, or from either official personally. Religious Zionism has not, in the reports available, responded to the criticism from Eisenkot and Golan or explained the creative decision behind the imagery.

The full contents of the platform beyond the override clause are not detailed in these reports, and it is not stated whether other parties have endorsed or rejected the coalition precondition. Nor do the reports say how the platform would be implemented procedurally, or what timetable the party envisages.