2023-07-25 12:19:00
The crisis escalates Tuesday in Israel, the day after the adoption by Parliament of a key measure of the controversial judicial reform project carried by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, which has sparked calls for a general strike in a context of growing protest.
Several appeals have been filed, in particular by the Israeli bar, with the Supreme Court for the invalidation of this law, voted by the 64 elected members of the Prime Minister’s coalition, which includes ultra-Orthodox and far-right Jewish parties.
The Netanyahu government believes that this measure, which aims to increase the power of elected officials over that of magistrates, is necessary to ensure a better balance of powers.
Its detractors see it for their part as a threat to democracy and fear that it opens the way to an authoritarian drift.
To protest against this law, limiting the possibility for the Supreme Court to invalidate a decision of the government, the union of doctors launched a general strike on Tuesday in the public service, except for emergencies.
He denounces the absence of dialogue between the parties concerned and “celebrations celebrating a victory in a war where there are only losers”.
On Monday, the powerful leader of the Histadrut trade union center, Arnon Bar David, warned that “any unilateral progress in reform would have serious consequences”, brandishing the threat of a “general strike if necessary”.
Several Israeli dailies carried an all-black front page on Tuesday morning with the words “Black Day for Israeli Democracy.”
Since its announcement in January, the justice reform bill has sparked one of the biggest protests in Israel’s history, which intensified as the vote approached.
“Leading a dialogue”
During the demonstrations which continued late Monday evening, 58 people were arrested by the police for disturbing the public order, according to a police spokesman.
Police had used water cannons to disperse protesters trying to block major thoroughfares in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
“You see what is happening in the street (…), everyone is very angry, I am really sad,” Josh Hakim, a student who was demonstrating Monday evening near the Parliament in Jerusalem, told AFP.
The measure voted on Monday, the first of the reform to become law, prevents the Supreme Court from invalidating a government decision by judging its “reasonableness”.
This clause had forced in January Mr. Netanyahu to dismiss the number two of the government, Arie Dery, condemned for tax evasion, following the intervention of the Supreme Court.
Critics of the Prime Minister, on trial for corruption, accuse him of wanting to use this reform to mitigate a possible judgment against him.
Mr. Netanyahu said on Monday that he wanted to negotiate with the opposition on the continuation of the reform project and “to lead a dialogue between us”.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid retorted that “Netanyahu’s goal was to silence the protesters” and warned that the struggle was just beginning.
The demonstrations have attracted Israelis from all political and social backgrounds, secular or religious, peace activists, blue-collar workers or workers in the technology sector, but also army reservists, in a context of rising Israeli-Palestinian violence.
25/07/2023 12:16:33 – Jerusalem (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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