“The police are under the command of Ben Gvir, and he is a terrorist,” Olmert said in an interview with the Nasradio radio station.

“He is a clown, a nobody, but now he has power,” the politician said in reference to the minister, known for his anti-Arab, and his stance as a racist and pro-colonization of Palestinian lands.

The heavy hand of the police against demonstrators who protest in rejection of the controversial judicial reform “will ignite a kind of fire that will spread,” he warned. Olmert considered unlikely a compromise between the right-wing Executive and the opposition around the initiative.

“In the end, the government will collapse, and it will collapse not necessarily because of the protest, but as a result of internal conflicts in the context of the heated atmosphere between Israelis and Palestinians,” he said, referring to the growing tension in the occupied areas.

In this regard, he questioned the support of the cabinet, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, to the most extremist sectors of the settlers, a group which assaulted the Palestinian town of Hawara a week ago.

“At the end, the arrogance, as well as the provocative and conspiratorial aggressiveness of these settlers (…) will lead to the overthrow of the Government,” he predicted.

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