Former High Court president Aharon Barak told anti-government protesters in Tel Aviv on Saturday that Israel was no longer a liberal democracy, as thousands of people gathered at the city’s Habima Square as well as in Jerusalem and Haifa to mark three years since the government launched its effort to massively weaken the nation’s judiciary.

“All my life I’ve worked in the public service. I’m not a man who gives speeches in the city square. I’m speaking to you tonight because our life’s work — liberal democracy — is crumbling,” Barak said in a video message played at the weekly rally.

“Are we a liberal democracy? My answer: Not anymore,” said the 89-year-old, who is often accused by the right wing of entrenching judicial overreach in Israel during his years in office between 1995 and 2006.

Israel’s democratic backslide “didn’t happen in a single dramatic event,” said Barak. “It’s a process where vital aspects of democracy come under a fierce attack, and democracy is harmed.”

Barak noted that in Israel’s system of government, the prime minister effectively controls both the executive and legislative branches.

“The only body that acts as a check on the government is the court,” said Barak.

“The court alone can’t stop our backsliding for long. Only the people, who are at the center of liberal democracy, can stop the backsliding, and even bring us back to what we were, and hoped to keep being,” he said.

Also speaking at the rally were Ruby and Hagit Chen, parents of slain soldier Itay Chen, an Israeli-American who was killed when Hamas invaded southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and whose body was taken to Gaza and returned in November 2025 as part of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal.

Ruby Chen accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of empowering Hamas before the October 7 attack and of seeking a sham probe into Israel’s policy failures........

© The Times of Israel