The Prime Minister of Israel addressed his citizens on July 20 through a televised message on local channels, to talk about the judicial reform, which will be voted on in the last instance in the Knesset -Israeli parliament- next Monday. The statement was in response to another night of citizen demonstrations and blockades in Tel-Aviv.
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The Israeli president affirmed that “a consensus is underway” within parliamentarians to give the green light to the controversial judicial reform, which has the objective of reducing the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court over the decisions of the Israeli Legislative Branch.
And despite his continued reluctance to acknowledge public concerns with this bill, the prime minister spoke of democracy in this televised address.
“Israel will continue to be a democratic country, it will continue to be a liberal country (…) It will protect the individual rights of everyone, but when I say all these rights must really be equal for everyone,” said the Israeli head of state.
הגיע הזמן לנפץ את כל השקרים על ״קץ הדמוקרטיה״. צפו ושתפו >> pic.twitter.com/Y7KB5YJony
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) July 20, 2023
Opposition within the army
The bill has provoked discontent not only from civil society, but also from dozens of army reservists, who expressed that if the judicial reform passed, they would stop reporting for service.
The former head of the Israeli intelligence service, Nadav Argamann, showed his support for the reservists on July 19, before the prime minister’s televised statement.
“The reservists are very concerned and fearful for the security of the State of Israel (…) We have to stop this legislation by all means,” Argamann said on local radio.
Netanyahu’s position on this is radical. His government “will not tolerate” reservists refusing to report for his service. “The refusal to provide service threatens the security of all citizens of Israel (…) We cannot tolerate it and we will not tolerate it,” the leader said.
One more day of protests in Tel-Aviv
Irit Edri, a 50-year-old lawyer, was at the citizen demonstrations in the capital of the Israeli state moments after Netanyahu’s “conciliatory” speech. The president’s words failed to convince Edri, who he described as a “liar” to his head of state.
“To put it plainly, he is the biggest liar of all time, so we don’t trust a word he says, (…) We’ve been through this many times, we don’t believe it anymore, we have to stop this legislation completely,” Edri said amid a blockade on one of Tel-Aviv’s main avenues.
Opposition leaders also backed popular discontent. Yair Lapid, one of the biggest critics of Benjamin Netanyahu, described the current government as an “extremist group” and urged members of parliament to vote against the reform.
International concern over reform
The US government has expressed its fears about judicial reform and the effects it could have on Israeli democracy, but it is not the only country that has reservations about Netanyahu’s plan.
At a press conference on Thursday, July 20, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau criticized his Israeli counterpart’s flagship bill, adding that inviting Netanyahu for an official visit on Canadian soil “is not in his plans at the moment.”
“We remain unconditional friends of Israel, but from time to time we have to point out where we disagree,” said the Canadian president after urging Netanyahu to “seek more consensus” around judicial reform, in addition to expressing his disapproval of the escalation of tensions with the occupied Palestinian territories.
The fact is that, after remaining frozen for months and after obtaining a preliminary ‘yes’ in the first reading of the bill in Parliament on July 11, the judicial reform awaits its final moment on Monday, July 24. If the Knesset decides to approve the reform package, taking into account the background, this decision will affect the political stability of the State of Israel.
With Reuters and AP
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