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16-04-2023
JERUSALAM/ TEL AVIV: Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Israel to protest against the government’s plan to overhaul the judiciary, despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to pause the contentious proposals.
More than 100,000 people participated in the main demonstration in Tel Aviv on Saturday, according to Israeli broadcaster Channel 12, and smaller demonstrations took place across the country. Counter protests were also planned in several locations.
Protest organizers, who have held these weekly protests for more than three months, aim to maintain momentum and increase pressure on Netanyahu and his government until the proposed changes are scrapped.
Facing opposition from civil society, parts of the army and even within his own cabinet, Netanyahu paused the overhaul plans in late March, saying he wanted “to avoid civil war”.
The plan would give Netanyahu, who is on trial on corruption charges, and his allies in Israel’s most hardline government the final say in appointing the nation’s judges.
It would also give parliament, which is controlled by his allies, authority to overturn Supreme Court decisions and limit the court’s ability to review laws.
Opponents have said it will destroy a system of checks and balances by concentrating power in the hands of Netanyahu and his allies in parliament.
They also have said that Netanyahu has a conflict of interest at a time when he is on trial.
Last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that a controversial plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary will be delayed after months of protests, growing labour strikes and opposition from within his own government.
“When there’s an opportunity to avoid civil war through dialogue, I, as prime minister, am taking a time out for dialogue,” Netanyahu said in a nationally televised address on Monday.
He said he was determined to pass a judicial reform but called for “an attempt to achieve broad consensus”. The delay means that the bill will not be put to a vote in parliament until the end of April at the earliest.
The government’s plan to tighten parliament’s control over judicial processes has triggered some of the biggest mass protests in Israeli history, with the plan’s opponents calling the move a threat to democracy.
Netanyahu spoke after tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated outside the Knesset or parliament and workers launched a nationwide strike in a dramatic escalation of the mass protest movement aimed at halting his plan.
The chaos shut down much of the country and threatened to paralyze the economy, with flights suspended at Ben 
Gurion International Airport and work halted at the country’s main seaports. Kindergartens and malls were also closed, as well as branches of the fast food chain McDonald’s.
Shortly after the address, the head of the country’s biggest labour union, Histadrut, said it would call off a general strike.
Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition partner, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, said he had agreed to the delay in return for a deal that he could form a national guard under his ministry, a move opponents fiercely criticize as giving him his own private militia.
Before the prime minister’s address, the grassroots anti-government protest movement said a delay was not enough?
“A temporary freeze does not suffice, and the national protests will continue to intensify until the law is rejected in the Knesset,” organizers said.
Haggai Matar, executive director of +972 magazine told media that the halt to the reform was probably a “delaying tactic”. (Int’l News Desk)
