The petition calls for an investigation into Channel 14, calling it a “pure poison capsule” that undermines the court

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court asking the court to order the police to investigate 18 prominent media personalities appearing on the pro-government news channel Channel 14 for various offenses including sedition and incitement to violence.

The petition, filed Sunday by the Movement for Fair Regulation, cites a series of inflammatory comments from right-wing commentators, anchors and pundits on Channel 14’s newscasts over the past two years and accuses police of failing to respond to a complaint the organization filed more than a year ago that detailed many of the alleged crimes.

The petition also demands that the public prosecutor’s office and the attorney general explain why they did not direct the police to investigate the alleged crimes in the reporting, which the Movement for Fair Regulation, founded in 2024, calls a “pure capsule of poison” designed to undermine trust in the Supreme Court and pose a threat to democracy.

“These statements aim not only to undermine trust, disparage, humiliate and incite hatred against the Court, but also to completely deny the public basis for its legitimacy and promote refusal to abide by its decisions,” the petition said.

“These comments, one after another, day after day, program after program, on a channel that is among the most watched in Israel, pose a real danger to the democratic system practiced in the country,” the Fair Regulation Movement’s petition says, claiming that the antagonistic messages have now “leaked and spread” into public discourse.

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In response to the petition, the Supreme Court on Monday ordered the police, the public prosecutor’s office and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to inform the court within 14 days when they will make a decision on whether to investigate the channel’s experts.

Then-opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a Channel 14 conference in Jerusalem on October 23, 2022. (Yonatan SIndel/Flash90)

Channel 14, which has not yet issued a response to the petition, has become increasingly popular over the past five years and is now the second most-watched channel in Israel after Channel 12.

Critics say its pundits and anchors often engage in extreme, inflammatory and hyperbolic rhetoric against those they perceive as anti-government.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and many of his cabinet ministers have given interviews on Channel 14 – particularly its flagship show “Patriots” – while avoiding Israel’s other commercial channels and the public broadcaster Kan.

On Tuesday, Ynet news agency reported that police will send about 70 officers to the Patriots studio audience during work hours for a show scheduled to be filmed just before Independence Day next week.

While members of the security forces are often celebrated on Israeli television, especially around Independence Day, law enforcement sources quoted by Hebrew media criticized the decision to remove dozens of officers from military service and send them to an overtly political show.

Police said in a statement that officers were scheduled to take part in the show alongside paramedics, firefighters and other first responders, and that similar broadcasts had taken place in the past “without any extraordinary events or political discourse.”

The Hebrew media reporting that criticized the invitation was “biased and misleading” and “cynically uses the expression of gratitude and appreciation towards the security and rescue workers,” police said.

“It only works with violence”

The petition, filed Sunday, cites dozens of examples of comments made by Channel 14 media personalities, both before and after the original complaint to police, which the organization says violates sedition law.

“The day is near when the government will not only disobey the Supreme Court but [but] “The people of Israel will rise up against the court,” said Shimon Riklin, host of the program “Riklin and Partners,” in February.

During a broadcast in June 2024, Riklin also apparently called on right-wing activists to physically threaten Supreme Court judges to get them to change their position on a particular case, stating: “If right-wing people came to the Supreme Court at 11:30 a.m., you don’t need many, you need a few hundred, you can change the outcome, which is obviously necessary because of the….” [presiding] judicial body.”

In January 2025, Prof. Moshe Cohen-Eliya, a legal scholar and frequent guest on The Patriots, appeared to call for a military coup against Israel’s democratic institutions.

During the broadcast, he said it was crucial to ask candidates for the positions of IDF chief of staff and Mossad chief who they would obey if the Supreme Court ruled against “democracy,” meaning the government, “and we, the people, tell them to act according to our instructions.”

Cohen-Eliya continued: “We must ensure this because we are reaching the stage where we need the help of the army and the Shin Bet to fight… there is a nation here that does not want to live under a repressive regime.” [the Supreme Court] and we must build all centers of strength to prepare for the restoration of power to the people… it will only work by force.”

A large advertising sign for Channel 14 posted on a building in Jerusalem, August 14, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

In addition to examples of sedition and incitement to violence, the petition also cites other alleged crimes committed by Channel 14 personalities, including contempt of court, undue influence on judicial proceedings, and aiding and abetting all of the aforementioned crimes.

For example, the petition quotes Riklin as saying that the Supreme Court “cares more about the Nukhba.” [Hamas terrorists who perpetrated the October 7, 2023 atrocities] as IDF soldiers,” and that the court “takes care of Nazis.”

The petition also cites calls from Cohen-Eliya and frequent “The Patriots” guest Itamar Fleishman for U.S. President Donald Trump to impose sanctions on Supreme Court President Isaac Amit; Fleishman’s comments calling Amit “mentally ill”; Comments from expert Yaakov Bardugo, who calls Amit a “dictator”; and numerous calls from several of Channel 14’s respondents named in the petition to not comply with court orders.

The petition also states that Channel 14 media personalities threatened a judge and points to comments by frequent “The Patriots” guest Yaki Adamker on Supreme Court petitions regarding access to the Western Wall for non-Orthodox Jewish denominations.

“The Western Wall is a red line…You don’t understand who you’re dealing with…If you harm one of the Jewish people’s holiest places, it’s going too far…People won’t be silent about something like this. Be careful,” Adamker warned in February.

These and many other comments, the petition argues, show that Channel 14 serves as a “generator of dangerous propaganda and rebellion” against Israel’s democratic institutions.

The petition also notes that laws passed in 2018 allow Channel 14 to bypass important regulations for commercial news broadcasters that are intended to ensure fair and balanced reporting.

Under this legislation, Channel 14 is exempt from regulatory requirements that require a broadcaster to have more than a single owner, its news division to be a separate collaboration from the broadcaster itself, and to adopt the ethics rules of the Israeli Public Council for Press and Ethics.

“These accumulated facts raise real concerns [Channel 14] is used as a tool by those who want to undermine the stability of the democratic system in the country and prepare and prepare the ground and public opinion for violent measures against the judicial system and its judges in general and the Supreme Court, its President and its judges in particular,” the petition said.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.