THE Israeli opposition has planned to boycott the address of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Knesset during his visit to the country, top Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Tuesday.

The Indian prime minister will visit Israel from February 25 to 26, India’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday. It will be Modi’s second visit to Israel.

According to the report, the opposition — led by Yair Lapid — is in a “standoff” with Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana due to his decision not to invite the Israeli Supreme Court President Isaac Amit to attend a special session of the parliament “as is customary”.

The report said that Lapid on Monday urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ensure Amit’s invitation.

According to Haaretz, Lapid, in a post on X, said: “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.”

As per the report, Lapid, while speaking in the Knesset last week, warned that “boycotting Justice Amit is also a boycott of the opposition, and will not allow us to attend the session”.

He further said 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”.

Haaretz quoted him as claiming that “the Indian embassy was ‘in a panic’”.

“Knesset speaker Ohana, however, in response to the boycott, maintained that he plans to invite former lawmakers to fill the seats of boycotting opposition lawmakers,” Haaretz repo­rted, citing Israel’s public broadcaster Kan.

According to the report, Ohana also urged Lapid not to harm Israel’s foreign relations with “one of the most significant powers in the world”, terming the boycott an “illegitimate weapon in a political struggle”.

With input from Reuters

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2026