2023-07-08 22:43:00
Some 150,000 people demonstrated during the 27th week of mobilization against the controversial judicial reform, a figure up from previous weeks.
By NJ with AFP 150,000 people demonstrated this Saturday against the judicial reform wanted by the government. © YAIR PALTI / ANADOLU AGENCY / Anadolu Agency via AFP Published on 07/08/2023 at 10:43 p.m.
For the 27th consecutive week, Israelis have taken to the streets to protest against a controversial judicial reform championed by the government. This Saturday, July 8, several tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated in the center of Tel Aviv and in other Israeli cities. The demonstrators were more numerous than in recent weeks, according to the organizers who put forward the figure of 180,000 demonstrators in Tel Aviv.
The Israeli media also gave figures on the rise, around 150,000 demonstrators, on the eve of the introduction, Monday, in the Knesset of an important provision of the reform. Police do not provide estimates of the number of protesters, of whom around 100 were dispersed with water cannons after blocking Tel Aviv’s urban highway, according to an AFP reporter.
“There will be no going back”
After unsuccessful attempts at negotiations with the opposition following the announcement at the end of March of a “pause” in attempts to legislate on reform, the government is relaunching the offensive in Parliament on Monday, with the examination in first reading of a bill aimed at canceling the possibility for the judiciary to rule on the “reasonableness” of government decisions.
This provision affects in particular the appointment of ministers. In January, it forced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dismiss government number two Arie Dery, convicted of tax evasion, following the intervention of the Supreme Court.
READ ALSOJudicial reform in Israel: the 4 proposals that set the country ablaze“We must act on what Netanyahu’s government is doing to our country and to the Israeli dream. If the Netanyahu government does not stop, he will learn in the coming days what will happen when we get angry,” said historian and essayist Yuval Noah Harari at the opening of the Tel- Aviv.
For Amit Lev, 40, an executive in the high-tech sector, “if we don’t stop what is happening now, there will be no going back.”
Better balance of power desired
The bill which will be introduced on Monday “aims to prevent the judiciary from criticizing government decisions that do not fall under any other law”, he worries. “If this law passes we will not be able to live as we wish,” said Nira, a 59-year-old physiotherapist, saying she was worried about the future.
READ ALSOIsrael, democracy in dangerFormed at the end of December with the support of far-right parties and ultra-Orthodox Jewish formations, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to pass a justice reform aimed at increasing the power of elected officials over that of magistrates.
The government believes the reform is necessary to ensure a better balance of power, but its critics see it as a threat to Israeli democracy and its institutional safeguards.
Demonstrations against the judicial reform project have followed one another without interruption every Saturday evening since January in what is considered one of the largest protest movements in the history of Israel. A new day of national mobilization was announced for Tuesday by the organizers.
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