The Fair Regulation Association is calling on Israel Police, the State Attorney, and the Attorney General to open a criminal investigation against Channel 14 and its broadcasters for repeated incitements against the justice system. The channel is owned by businessman Yitzchak Mirilashvili, son of oligarch Michael Mirilashvili.

Channel 14 competes for the slot of the second most watched channel in Israel, and is identified with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the far right in Israel. It receives regulatory benefits worth tens of millions of shekels, and promotes the messages of Netanyahu and his coalition. All this while Netanyahu is accused of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three different cases.

According to the association, which works to maintain professional ethics in media, consistent, repeated statements by the channel go far beyond the boundaries of freedom of expression and legitimate criticism into criminal territory: offenses of sedition, incitement to violence, contempt of court, and more.

The association, founded by Leora Nir, filed a complaint with the police (12/2/25), attaching more than a hundred different cases where the channel's broadcasters incited against the courts in Israel in general and the Supreme Court in particular, with emphasis on Supreme Court President Justice Yitzhak Amit.

Among the many cases collected by the association, several recurring motifs stand out, including the claim that Supreme Court justices act against the State of Israel and in favor of its enemies, that they operate without authority in a kind of tyrannical rule they assumed with no cause, that therefore one should refuse to comply with Supreme Court rulings and even rebel against the "dictatorship" of the jurists and bring about its elimination.

In other words, the channel consistently calls for wholesale law-breaking, defames justices, and incites violence against them.

The channel has not yet responded to The Seventh Eye inquiries following the complaint.

Spreading Lies, Calls for Disobedience

The complaint against Channel 14 includes many quotes from participants of  The Patriots, the channel's flagship talk show where regular pundits discuss current affairs, led by host Yinon Magal.

Itamar Fleischmann, one of the most identified pundits with The Patriots, who also occasionally hosts the program, is quoted as spreading false accusations against Supreme Court justices, calling for disobedience to Supreme Court rulings, inciting against judges, and calling for actions against them - seemingly violent.

"We must always remember that the Supreme Court's ultimate goal is the abolition of Israel as a Jewish state," Fleischmann said on one occasion. On another occasion, he spoke about Supreme Court justices' attitude toward Israeli citizens and said: "These people are ash and dust to them. Only their honor, only their tyranny, and only their basic lack of morality rules supreme."

In another quote Fleischmann threatened "when this whole event is over, we will remember. And they are going to experience something they've never experienced before, and that's the people's wrath." Regarding a hearing on Palestinian family unification, he said: "This is an excellent example of a Supreme Court ruling that must not be obeyed." The regular pundit also said about the judges: "These are the most extreme and dangerous people in Israeli society."

Michael (right) and Yitzhak Mirilashvili (Photos: Itamar Ba'z and Ronen Goldman, CC BY-SA 3.0 license)

Fleischmann compared Supreme Court justices to the Ayatollah’s regime in Iran and said: "If there's some board with a yellow marker in Khamenei’s [the dictator of Iran] room, every time he sees the Supreme Court does something he says, I must do it too. And then he marks with a yellow marker: stealing parliament's authority - check, contempt for the people I live amongst - check, putting a gun on my Justice Minister's table - check, he's trying to reach the level, he is the chief Ayatollah and even he can't reach the level of our Ayatollahs."

Another statement by Fleischmann combined several elements typical of his - and other channel presenters' - discourse: false defamation of the Supreme Court and a veiled threat of violence against the Justices. "The Supreme Court seized authority that is not his, took control of the Judicial Appointment Committee, after it took control of the Israel Defense Forces, after it canceled the legislative branch, and now it also wants to abrogate the executive branch," said the Channel 14 employee, "there will be no agreements, it will take more time, but there's a law in physics, and we're now in the field of physics, material that doesn't bend - breaks, and they're on their way."

Fleischmann even placed responsibility for the October 7th massacre by Hamas - on Supreme Court justices. "We don't believe you!" he declared, "and not only do we not believe you, you need to be investigated by the commission of inquiry, you need to, Supreme Court justices, answer for your actions prior to October 7."

On another occasion he said: "The Israeli justice system persecutes soldiers ... but your political day is near. Your dictatorship ... took another giant leap toward its end today, and the people will have their say."

In a separate discussion he added: "This doesn't have a good ending. I understand that the prosecution and the entire dictatorial system are currently gripping Israel by its throat but your political time is up. You're on borrowed time."

His fellow panel member on the program, Yotam Zimri, is also extensively quoted in the complaint's appendix.

According to Zimri, "Our justice system doesn't want us to win, unequivocally does everything so we won't win," Zimri determined. "From their perspective, the only compromise is that Yariv Levin (Minister of Justice) isn't yet bound, blindfolded, and taken to an interrogation room."

On another occasion he claimed: "From the Supreme Court's perspective, the fact that people here, that we who don't think like them, are breathing, that's the compromise. The fact that baboons [Netanyahu supporters, as Channel 14 claims the Supreme Court sees them] can still vote in the ballot box is a compromise from the Supreme Court's perspective, so it's not correct to say they haven't reached a compromise."

When the Supreme Court heard a petition against Defense Minister Yoav Gallant's dismissal by Netanyahu, Zimri said: "This is a gang of 'whims in robes' ... This is a classic ruling that you don't even need to show up for, let alone obey, and I think they should have told the Supreme Court this isn't in your authority, you can deliberate, you can do what you want. We have no intention of obeying this. If you want, send the army. And on a more practical level... I suggested to the government in previous times, when there were such absurd and delusional and tyrannical petitions, to simply draw a middle finger on an A4 sheet and fax it to [justice] Fogelman's office..."

Irit Linur, another regular participant in The Patriots, is also quoted in the complaint's appendix.

"They need to know that they don't live alone and they're not wrapped in cotton wool. Their decisions, there are far-reaching decisions about Israel's security, about Israel's nationalism, they need to start to feel the people and its breath," Linur said regarding a Supreme Court hearing on a human rights organization's petition.

"The next stage will be, you acted without authority, and therefore your ruling is not accepted," Linur announced on another occasion, and in another discussion stated: "I think we should blow up Supreme Court sessions where they discuss giving medical treatment to Nukhba [Hamas militants] terrorists."

Regarding Netanyahu's judges in his criminal trial, Linur said: "There are people here who don't know their place. They disrupt, undermine Israel's security, harm Israeli democracy, they create all kinds of precedents out of drunken power and blindness."

Yedidya Meir, also a regular participant in The Patriots, brought some of his Orthodox world to the program, when he said about the Supreme Court's approval of Ari Rosenfeld's, a soldier who leaked classified information, continued detention: "And this is the prayer that's relevant to such evil, to such cruelty of the court. And we ask that the evil kingdom shall soon be uprooted, broken, humiliated. Subdue them speedily in our days... This is evil."

‎Dror Kapah, another regular pundit on The Patriots, compared - during a discussion about the Judicial Appointment Committee - the justice system in Israel to Bashar Assad's tyrannical rule in Syria: "Just as the State of Israel put things in order and the Alawites in Syria fell, the Alawites here too, [he used an expression to indicate it is a metaphor], will fall. It will happen sooner or later."

The Patriots host, Yinon Magal, is quoted in the complaint's appendix as saying: "Let people come to the Supreme Court for these hearings, and shout at the judges ‘shame!’, let them shout ‘shame!’"

Such content is not unique to The Patriots and is common to other programs of channel 14. Prof. Moshe Cohen-Eliya, a regular participant in The Patriots, and a professor of constitutional law, defined the Supreme Court as "a bigger danger than Hamas," but the harshest statement from him quoted in the complaint was actually broadcast on another program, hosted by Dana Varon, where he said:

"It's critical, critical, critical, that the next Chief of Staff and next Mossad head, the first question they should be asked is if there's a Supreme Court ruling that contradicts democracy and we, the people, tell you to act according to our instructions, who do you obey? First question. We need to verify this because we're reaching a stage where we'll need to use the army and Shin Bet [The Internal Intelligence Service] to fight. ... There's a people here that doesn't want to live under a regime of oppression and this is a regime of oppression and we need to build all the power bases, to prepare and return power to the people."

Later Cohen-Eliya emphasized: "I was in all the compromise arenas - this will only happen by force! Because they only understand force, unfortunately, I tried all other ways." Host Varon concluded: "Revolutionary things and said with great courage, I thank you for this conversation."

Shimon Riklin, a prominent presenter on Channel 14, is quoted as saying about Supreme Court justices that "they are collaborators with elements who are hostile to Israel." According to him, "The court... sticks knives in the nation's back."

He described Justice Uzi Fogelman as "the one who cares for the Nukhba" and "Hamas lover," and claimed that "the Supreme Court that tries, that cares so much for the Nukhba, ...did it always care for the Nukhba? Did it always care for Nazis? ... and I'll be gentle here, but the Supreme Court here sometimes cares for the Nukhba more than it cares for IDF soldiers."

On another occasion Riklin determined that "the Supreme Court has become the house of the Nukhba."

"A small sample of the wild incitement"

According to the association that filed the complaint against Channel 14, these statements, as well as others, raise suspicion of acts of sedition (defined as an act intended to "induce hatred, contempt or disloyalty to the state or its lawfully established government or judicial authorities"), incitement to violence, contempt of court, insulting a public servant and undue influence (on a judicial process).

"The entire cluster together is evidence, first and foremost, of acts of sedition committed by the channel by executing, with intent, continuously and persistently, a policy aimed at 'inciting hatred, contempt or disloyalty ... to the lawfully established government or judicial authorities of (the state)'. The damage in each of the statements is great. The cumulative damage of the cluster is devastating and may lead to violence and irreversible acts," the complaint claims.

The 113 examples attached to the Fair Regulation Movement complaint were sampled from May 2024 to early February 2025 from the channel's broadcasts between 6:00 PM and 11:00 PM and constitute "a small sample of the wild incitement heard every day in all of the channel's broadcasts," the complaint claims.

"Hundreds more statements in this vein are made by the channel," the letter states, which were not included because "they were made in passing in discussions that were not intended to deal with the legal and judicial systems in Israel." In addition, the association writes, "No statements have been included here that constitute legitimate opinions on changes in the legal system, even if they were made in poor or offensive language, or on legal issues that are the subject of public controversy."

Most of the statements, the association emphasizes, are made by the channel's presenters and regular participants in its programs, and only a minority are made by guests. "Therefore," the complaint claims, "they should not be seen as random statements or one-time slip of the tongue, but rather as a consistent policy pursued by the channel they work for, which strives to erode the foundations of the democratic regime in Israel in general, and the trust in the Supreme Court in particular, and which causes incalculable damage to the state and its citizens."

The association refers to a recent ruling by the High Court of Justice, in which Justice Alex Stein devoted a paragraph to the importance of public trust in the judicial system, while referring to the media that cover it:

“It is difficult to overstate the importance of public trust in its judges and the judicial system as a whole. This system needs public trust, and it is undesirable for this trust to be eroded. In this context, it is important to be aware that, alongside fair and appropriate criticism – which requires the judicial system to examine and improve its ways – some of the publications about the work and conduct of judges, which are widely published in the media and on social networks, contain idle and fabricated claims as well as reports that distort what is stated in court rulings and decisions, due to an oversight or deliberate intent.

“These false publications do not come only from the mouths of the dissatisfied – headed by litigants whose expectations have been disappointed – but also from the mouths of those who wish to undermine the universe of rights and obligations by law, in order to replace them with a 'right makes might' regime, that benefits winners of various power struggles and their followers. In a reality of multiple beliefs and opinions, publication that distorts a judge's decision or ruling is sometimes accepted by the public as the truth; and the same is true for unflattering publication about a judge's conduct. All of this inflicts harm on the public's trust in the Judicial system, with no justification."

According to the Movement for Fair Regulation, "the series of statements described in the complaint expresses the damage described by Justice Stein, in all its potential and severity, and should not be accepted or reconciled with."

The association also emphasizes that the complaint is directed not only at the speakers, but also at Arutz Yehudi Israeli Ltd., the sole owner of Channel 14, since "it dictates its policy" and is "responsible for the statements of its employees, certainly for so many repeated statements."

The association concludes the letter with the words: "You are hereby requested to investigate the suspicions of the above offenses urgently, resolutely, and persistently before the damage becomes irreparable and/or, God forbid, acts of violence are actually committed against judicial and law-enforcement representatives in Israel."