Israel demonstrations: Strikes paralyze vital sectors as Netanyahu’s government survives a vote of no confidence
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Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport has suspended departures as part of the protests sweeping the country
The management of the main ports of Haifa and Ashdod in Israel announced on Monday that they were suspending work as part of a workers’ strike to protest government reforms to the country’s judicial system.
Two separate statements indicated that work had stopped after Israel’s main labor union announced a general strike earlier on Monday until Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu halted the judicial legislation.
Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv also suspended departures as part of the nationwide union protests.
Arnon Bar-David, head of the Israeli Federation of Trade Unions, the Histadrut, had called for a nationwide strike.
“I received orders to immediately stop take-offs at the airport,” said Pinchas Idan, head of the workers union at Ben Gurion Airport, according to The Times of Israel.
The Israeli Medical Association and the Union of Local Authorities said they would join the strike, according to Israeli media.
The McDonald’s fast food chain also announced in a tweet on Twitter that it will close all of its branches in Israel, starting this afternoon local time.
Under the heading “General Strike,” she said that this step coincided with the movement of the Federation of Trade Unions, which called for a general strike this morning.
Protesters also intend, later today, to organize a march in front of the Israeli Knesset, according to what the protest leaders announced.
Israeli Economy Minister Nir Barkat called on the government to unite behind Netanyahu amid mounting unrest over judicial reforms.
Barkat has pleaded with coalition parties to support Netanyahu, after widespread speculation that he intends to move to delay the controversial legislation.
“I call on all my colleagues in the government, in the Likud and the partner parties in the coalition, to unite behind the prime minister and support him in stopping the legislation,” Barkat said in a tweet.
He added, “We must not, with our own hands, lead to the overthrow of the right-wing government. Our strength is in our unity.”
A source in the Likud party and another source close to the legislation said, according to the Reuters news agency, that Netanyahu would suspend the sweeping reform, which sparked some of the largest street demonstrations in Israel’s history and led to the intervention of the head of state.
Israel’s Justice Minister, Yariv Levin, said he would respect any decision Netanyahu made regarding judicial reforms.
He added in a statement that it was in the interest of his party, Likud, to cooperate with Netanyahu’s decision, whatever it may be.
Levin said, “A situation in which everyone does whatever they want could lead to the immediate downfall of the government and the collapse of the Likud. We all have to do our best to stabilize the government and the coalition.”
Netanyahu’s coalition government survived this morning’s motion of no-confidence by the opposition.
Yuval Shany, a researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute, told the BBC that the country is “completely at a standstill,” so the pressure on Netanyahu means that he “has no political option but to stop the legislation or at least suspend it,” he said.
Despite this, Shani adds, this may lead to “some far-right factions abandoning the coalition and possibly the resignation of the Minister of Justice.”
This comes at a time when Yair Lapid, the leader of the opposition in parliament and former prime minister, called on Netanyahu to “cancel” the decision to dismiss Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Lapid said in a meeting that included deputies from his “There is a Future” party that Israel could not afford to change its defense minister at this time.
He added, “Let us go to the president’s residence and start a national dialogue that we have a constitution based on the Declaration of Independence and a state in which we all live in mutual respect.”
He said the prime minister sacked Gallant “only for one reason – that he told the truth”.
The defense minister, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, had called for halting judicial reforms to allow more time for dialogue, warning of “a clear, immediate and tangible danger to state security.”
The judicial amendments are an integral part of the plans of the Israeli right, which forms a coalition government, which is considered the most stringent in the history of the country, and aims to reduce the powers of the judiciary.
The amendments include allowing Parliament to change the decisions of the Supreme Court, in a move that critics describe as undermining the independence of the judiciary, and enabling politicians to exploit it.
But Netanyahu says the reforms are aimed at preventing the courts from abusing the powers available to them, and that the people voted for them in the last elections.