Cornered by the weight of the protests and the call for a general strike by the unions, the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, postponed the controversial judicial reform promoted by his government, although he did not completely discard it. Netanyahu announced that the second and third reading of the reform was postponed to the next parliamentary session that will open after the Jewish Passover holidays, from April 5 to 13, thus giving in partly to the demands of opposition leaders and citizens. that took over the streets
“When it is possible to prevent a civil war through dialogue, I, as prime minister, take time to negotiate”stated Netanyahu in an expected televised intervention. President Isaac Herzog, who hours before had called for the “immediate” suspension of the reform, welcomed the announcement to “put out fires” and even offered to mediate, although he did not conform to the groups calling for the protests, the largest in history From Israel.
“Threat to dismantle democracy”
Many of the protesters saw the paralysis of the reform as “a victory” for citizen mobilization, but they agree that they will not stop the protests until this one is not buried. “We have to continue protesting because the government is going too far,” said Becca Sousa, a 59-year-old woman who, like many other protesters, waved the Israeli flag and called to keep up with the Executive to completely overthrow the plan.
“The government has brought Israel to the brink of destruction and is still threatening to dismantle democracy. A temporary freeze is not enough and the national protests will continue to escalate until the law is completely rejected in the Knesset,” declared the Umbrella Movement against the Dictatorship, which brings together various civil groups. However, after the announcement, the Histadrut, the country’s main union confederation, proclaimed the end of the general strike called a few hours earlier.
After extensive meetings with his government partners, Netanyahu announced that “out of national responsibility and the desire to avoid a rift in our town,” suspended the vote in the second and third reading of the law on the election of judgesone of the most controversial aspects of the reform, which was scheduled to be approved this week, before the parliamentary recess in April for the Jewish Passover.
Thus The government set a deadline until July to engage in a dialogue with the opposition and agree on some changes to the original reformseen by broad social sectors (including the economic and military sectors) as a threat to democracy, because it undermines the independence of the judiciary by giving the Executive broad control over it and reduces the supervisory capacity of the Supreme Court.
The time to negotiate?
Although it is not the first time that the prime minister has offered a dialogue to the opposition, it is the first time that he has done so by putting the brakes on the processing of the reform in the Knesset, which could lay the foundations for a negotiation. “If legislation really stops, genuinely and totally, we are ready to start a genuine dialogue at the president’s residence“said the opposition leader, the centrist Yair Lapidwho warned that Netanyahu’s concession could also be a “hoax”.
After his words, the opposition leader of the National Unity Party of Israel, Benny Gantz, welcomed the measure and stated that “better late than never”, adding that they will start talks with the government about it. The United States, a great ally of Israel, applauded the move, which “gives more time to find a compromise,” said White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre.
In his message on the national chain, Netanyahu insisted that a reform “restores the lost balance between the powers of the State” is necessary, since in his opinion, in the current system, the Supreme Court has many powers to interfere in political affairs. This Monday, the parliamentary commission of laws voted in favor of one of the key elements of the reform: the bill that modifies the process of appointing judges.
The reform promoted by the Netanyahu government, one of the most right-wing in the history of Israel, seeks to increase the power of politicians over judges and diminish the role of the Supreme Court. Netanyahu and his ultra-Orthodox and far-right allies defend the change, arguing that the balance of forces between elected officials and the Supreme Court, which they see as politicized, must be balanced. His detractors consider that the reform threatens the separation of powers and the democratic character of the State of Israel.
The dismissal of a minister, the trigger
Netanyahu fired his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sundayafter he publicly spoke out in favor of stopping the reform in the face of the broad rejection provoked in the population. The situation even led thousands of reservists to refuse to serve in the Army.which in his opinion represented a “real and imminent danger to the security of Israel.”
As a reply, A record number of more than 650,000 Israelis took to the streets across the country on Sunday night, especially in Tel Aviv, in protests that were called improvised on social networks. The protests continued on Monday with the call for a general strike by the Histadrut, which was followed by universities, banks, fast food chains such as McDonald’s, city halls and hospitals, in a decision that was later suspended.
In addition, workers at the Ben Gurion International Airport managed to suspend flight take-offs for several hours, and traffic in the port of Ashod was stopped. More than 100,000 protesters again gathered outside the Knesset in Jerusalem on Monday, while a pro-government counter-demonstration, organized by far-right groups, gathered in the same area with thousands in attendance, including the Minister of National Security, Ben Gvir.
The Palestinians, largely absent
In this wave of protests, the great absentees are the Palestinians. Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, 20 percent of the population, do not feel compelled to protest. To a large extent they believe that their rights as a minority are not really being claimed and see what happened as a conflict between sectors of Jewish-Israeli society.
The Palestinian question and the occupation of the Palestinian territories were not priority issues in the protestsalthough as on other days, this Monday there was a small group of Israeli activists who displayed Palestinian flags and urged an end to the occupation. “There is no such thing as democracy with occupation”chanted this group of protesters, while what appeared to be undercover Israeli policemen seized their flags and detained some of them.