Thousands protest in Israel against Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul

A battle over the future of Israel’s judiciary – seen by many as a battle for the soul of Israeli democracy – became more intense on Monday as some 100,000 people protested from across the country. spilled onto the street outside Parliament in Jerusalem in one of the biggest wars. never protested in the city.

The protesters arrived by bus from Haifa, train from Tel Aviv and car from the occupied Golan Heights. They carried Israeli flags, loudspeakers and homemade banners. And they are calling for democracy, freedom and an independent judiciary.

Protesters gather to protest a sweep Judicial overhaul proposed by new Israeli government — the most religious right-wing and conservative in the country’s history — bitterly divided the Israelis. These changes would reduce the Supreme Court’s ability to revoke laws passed by Congress and give the government greater influence over who becomes a judge.

The protest follows a dramatic televised speech on Sunday night by Israel’s largely ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, in which he called for compromise and warned that the crisis had pushed country “to the brink of constitutional and social collapse,” and possibly “a riot.” conflict.”

The scale of the protest reflects the deep disagreement in Israeli society about the ideal structure and future of the country’s democratic institutions. Opponents of the plan have described it as a threat to the free state of Israel; opposition leader, Yair Lapid, has warned that it could collapse Israel’s democracy; a former defense secretary, Benny Gantz, warned of civil war.

In response, the government says the changes represent a much-needed reform of the justice system that has become too powerful. Amid a fierce public debate, leaders of both sides accused each other of plotting a coup.

On Monday, after opposition lawmakers disrupted a Parliamentary committee that was working on a proposed bill, Netanyahu berated opposition leaders, asking them to “stop deliberately giving land water into turmoil”.

Rooted in a decades-long culture war between different sections of Israeli society, the stalemate began after Israel’s new government took office in late December and almost immediately sought control. judicial appointments.

For the government and its supporters, the move will strengthen Israel’s democracy by restoring equality in the relationship between elected lawmakers and an unelected judiciary and interventionism, while ensuring that government decisions better reflect the electoral choices of the majority of the population.

To critics, the proposals would instead damage Israeli democracy by giving too much power to the government; endanger the rights of minorities; and remove limits on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ability to enact legislation that could allow him to escape punishment in the ongoing corruption trial. Mr. Netanyahu denied the proposals were for his personal gain.

The focal point of Monday’s protests was a street in central Jerusalem that connects three branches of government — Parliament, the Supreme Court and the prime minister’s seat.

About 100,000 people had gathered there by mid-afternoon, according to Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster. Israeli media reported that some of the protesters had traveled in a 2.5-mile convoy of cars from northern Israel.

Officials and transport companies have arranged for more trains and buses to meet the demand for transportation to Jerusalem.

In their comments, speeches and banners, protesters expressed concern that the judicial proposals would turn Israel into a dictatorship.

“You voted for Bibi,” read a placard by one protester, using the nickname for Mr. Netanyahu. “You’ve got Mussolini.” Other placards place Mr. Netanyahu’s photo next to a photo of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, or actor Sacha Baron Cohen dressed in khaki in his 2012 satirical film, “The Dictator.” .

But many there said the protest went beyond politics and oriented more towards values.

“This is against ideas, not a person,” said Adir Ben-Tovim, 37, a property manager from Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv. He added: “I feel the country has been blindly attacked by a government that has caused disaster for the Israeli economy and the collapse of society.

A 12-year-old girl holds a placard that says, “When I’m 18, will there be an election?” as the crowd around her chanted: “Democracy! Democracy!”

Gili Bar-Hillel, a publisher and translator, drove from Tel Aviv to participate, along with her partner and their son, a 10th grader, and described plans for a judicial overhaul. is “a coup of the regime”.

Mrs Bar-Hillel, 48, said: ‘I can’t stand by and say I didn’t do anything. “It’s a slippery slope.”

Protests come after weeks regular protests in Tel Aviv, where a similar number of people have gathered every Saturday night since the start of the year.

But Monday’s protests were considered more dramatic because they took place on weekdays and were mainly in Jerusalem, a religious and right-wing stronghold. Participants of all ages were absent from work and school. They include groups of doctors, veterans who completed the two-day march to Jerusalem, students, high-tech workers and other professionals.

Some protesters said they doubt the protest will have any immediate impact on the government, but it is important for those who work in the opposition, as well as the chief justice of the Court The Supreme Court and other public figures opposed the changes, finding that they were popular. donate.

Inside Parliament, a government-controlled committee voted on Monday to push forward part of the proposed legislation. Although politicians pushing for the reform plan say there may be room for some compromise, they have defied a request from Mr Herzog, the president, to pause the legislative process to make room for it. broader discussion and consensus. The vote set the stage for a parliamentary debate in the coming days — the first step toward turning the plan into law in the coming months.

The vote caused a commotion in the committee room after opposition lawmakers, one of them in tears, chanted against the decision, and some of them climbed over the table. to confront the committee chair, Simcha Rothman, a government legislator.

The moves come hours after the government announced its first efforts to fortify Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, retroactively granting nine settlements settled by groups. construction without official approval from the state.

Despite their size and noise, Monday’s protests only partially reflected Israeli public opinion. About 44% of Israelis support judicial reform and 41% oppose, according to a recent poll by the Jewish Policy Institute, a Jerusalem-based research group.

Pro-government Israelis have also held protest rallies in recent days, albeit in much smaller numbers. A far-right group behind police barricades on the edge of Monday’s protest displayed a banner that read: “Lefters are traitors.”

Right now, “we have no democracy,” said Avi Abelow, 49, a right-wing video blogger who attended a pro-government rally on the West Coast last weekend. “This is about delivering the right democracy,” Mr. Abelow said.

On the right-wing side of Israel, the Supreme Court is often seen as a left-wing institution that prevents right-wing and religious governments from making the policies they are elected to enact. Despite widely advocating settlement building in the occupied territories, courts have sometimes made decisions that angered settlers, including rulings in favor of Israel withdrew troops from Gaza in 2005 and evacuated Israeli settlers there.

Courts have also often angered ultra-Orthodox Jews, also known as Haredim, by opposing measures that give them special rights, including exemptions from military service.

As a result, polling shows that support for a judicial overhaul generally depends on a person’s religious and political beliefs. Jewish Policy Institute polls indicate that the Haredi region is more enthusiastic about change than any other sub-sector in Israeli society, closely followed by religious nationalists, while only a quarter of secular Israelis support them.

In Israel’s Palestinian minority, which makes up about 20% of the total population, attitudes toward judicial plans are somewhat more conflicting.

Many Arabs agree that the Supreme Court often acts as a bulwark against attacks on minorities and has acted to limit parts of Israel’s settlement activity. But they also feel that Israel’s democracy has for many years been damaged by Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, where millions of Palestinians live under various forms of Israeli control without the right to vote or the right to vote. reside in Israel itself.

“Democracy cannot exist when you are occupying others,” said Aida Touma-Sliman, an Arab lawmaker in the Israeli Parliament.

“This fight will not end today,” opposition leader Yair Lapid said outside Parliament. “But the day will come when every man and woman out on the street can say to their children: The day the state of Israel needed me most, I was there.”

Myra Noveck, Gabby Sobelman and Hiba Yazbek contributed reporting.