An Israeli protester with a megaphone perched in the small wood that dominates the seat of Parliament, at the top of a hill in West Jerusalem, Monday, February 20 in the early afternoon. It lists the names of the parliamentarians of the ruling coalition, punctuating each mention with a scathing or funny refrain: ” Shame on you ! » His voice bounces off the facade of the Knesset and into the lobby, where lawmakers come and go.
They examine, in first reading, the first part of the reform aimed at curbing the powers of the Supreme Court, wanted by the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his conservative, far-right and religious allies. His coalition has been downplaying for eight weeks the cries of alarm from the highest officials and business circles, such as the unprecedented scale of demonstrations led to cries of “No to regime change! » et “No to dictatorship! “. On Monday, tens of thousands of people rallied again, slowly hiking the boulevards around the Knesset, almost ending up encircling it, before small groups dispersed around town, to the Prime Minister’s residence. minister.
The majority also ignored President Isaac Herzog’s call to freeze this process to engage in dialogue. Then that of the American ambassador, Thomas Nides, who publicly asked Mr. Netanyahu during the weekend: “As I tell my children, pull the brakes, slow down, try to find a consensus. » Dry response from the Israeli Minister for the Diaspora, Amichai Chikli: ” Mind your own business. »
The boss of the Shin Bet himself, Ronen Bar, advised parliamentarians on Monday to calm their speech, considering that the stability of the country was threatened. Early in the day, some activists held a picket outside the homes of two elected officials. The latter claim that they tried to prevent them from going to vote. The opposition deplored these alleged abuses.
” Shame on you “
Shortly after 4 p.m., Binyamin Netanyahu appears in the Knesset. In front of the camera of channel 14, won over to his cause, he denounces these demonstrators “who trample on democracy” et “refuse the results of the elections”. A young protester interrupts him. “Shame on you, you shouldn’t be in the Knesset. Do not laugh ! You are destroying democracy. » She is evacuated by the security service.
In the Hemicycle, the messianic and homophobic minister Avi Maoz, in charge of out-of-school education programs, poses as the guarantor of the 1948 declaration of independence, and warns against the “fratricidal war” where the opposition leads the country according to him. His Jewish supremacist colleague, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, denounces “the anarchists” around the event.
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