Opposition lawmakers walked out of the Knesset plenum on Wednesday evening, skipping speeches by parliament speaker Amir Ohana and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to protest the exclusion of High Court president Isaac Amit from a special legislative session honoring Indian premier Narendra Modi.

They returned later in the evening to attend Modi’s speech, with Opposition Leader Yair Lapid welcoming the Indian leader and insisting that the protest had “nothing to do with you.”

Lapid last week threatened to boycott the event unless Amit was invited, following several recent high-profile snubs of the country’s top judge by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition. He later appealed to Netanyahu to instruct Ohana to invite Amit to ensure that the opposition was not “excluded” from the session.

Following Amit’s election as court president in January 2025, Justice Minister Yariv Levin refused to recognize his authority and has subsequently refused to meet with him or address him as head of the court, nor publish his appointment as chief justice in the state gazette, as required by law.

Some members of the government have followed his lead, and Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli and Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi have both publicly called on the government not to abide by specific court orders and decisions on several occasions.

As a result of this boycott, Amit has been excluded from multiple Knesset events to which he would have traditionally been invited, including speeches by US President Donald Trump and several other world leaders.

Responding to Lapid’s ultimatum last week, Ohana accused the opposition leader of harming Israeli-Indian relations to score domestic political points and called his threat an “illegitimate” weapon in “an internal political struggle.”

As opposition MKs left the chamber on Wednesday evening, Yesh Atid released a statement blaming the........

© The Times of Israel