Knesset speaker plans to ask former MKs to Modi speech after opposition boycott

Israel’s opposition is planning to boycott Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech in the Knesset on Wednesday, in a standoff with the Knesset speaker over his decision not to invite Supreme Court President Isaac Amit to attend the special session, as is customary.

Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana said that Modi would not address a half-empty plenum, and plans to invite former lawmakers to fill the seats of boycotting opposition lawmakers, Israel’s public broadcaster Kan reported on Monday.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ensure that Amit is invited, enabling the opposition to participate. “We want to be in the session, we need to be in the session. Prime Minister Netanyahu must instruct Ohana to allow us to participate in the session,” Lapid wrote on X on Monday.

The decision not to invite Amit is part of the Netanyahu government’s efforts to challenge the authority of Supreme Court President Isaac Amit and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, alongside its push to advance legislation to overhaul the powers of Israel’s judiciary.

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Lapid announced the planned boycott last week, saying that “boycotting Justice Amit is also a boycott of the opposition, and will not allow us to attend the session.” Speaking in the Knesset on Thursday, he added that the opposition “does not want India to be embarrassed, with the leader of a nation of one and a half billion people standing here before a half-empty Knesset,” and claimed the Indian embassy was “in a panic.”

Ohana described the threat as an “illegitimate weapon in a political struggle,” and urged Lapid not to harm Israel’s foreign relations with “one of the most significant powers in the world.” He also said Lapid should “explain in his next conversation with the Indian embassy why he did not boycott the special sessions in honor of President Milei and President Trump – even though Justice Amit was not invited to them – but intends to boycott their prime minister.”

The planned visit will be Modi’s second to Israel, following his 2017 trip, and the first visit by an Indian prime minister to address the Knesset. Last month, opposition parties did not enter the special plenum session marking the anniversary of the Knesset’s founding, following Ohana’s decision not to invite Amit to attend.