Update with videoPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is going to suspend his controversial legal reforms. Israeli news channels report this based on sources within the Likud party. President Isaac Herzog had already called for this earlier in the day after hundreds of thousands of people protested on Sunday evening against the dismissal of Defense Secretary Yoav Gallant, who strongly criticized the radical plans on Saturday.
Caspar Naber
Latest update:
10:28
“For the sake of the unity of the people of Israel and accountability, I call on you to halt the legislative process immediately,” President Herzog wrote on Twitter. According to him, the reforms threaten the unity of the Israeli people and therefore society as a whole. “People are gripped by deep fear,” he said in his message to the government.
Prime Minister Netanyhu was due to televise the suspension of his reform plans on Monday morning, according to news outlets, but that was postponed amid reports that his nationalist-religious coalition was in danger of falling apart.
Israel’s main union threatened a nationwide strike on Monday. “Bring back the sanity of the country. If you do not announce at a press conference today that you have changed your mind, we will go on strike,” said Arnon Bar-David, chairman of the Histadrut labor federation, which represents hundreds of thousands of workers. Israeli media reported that flight departures from Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion International Airport have been suspended.
If you don’t announce at a press conference today that you’ve changed your mind, we’re going on strike
Netanyahu fired his defense minister and party colleague Gallant on Sunday evening after the latter called on television on Saturday to halt the implementation of the plans because of the “deep divisions in society that affect the military and threaten national security.” He proposed a “pause” until after Pesach, the Jewish Easter, to allow talks about the reform. The minister stressed his support for making changes to the judiciary but only with broad consent and called for an immediate halt to the mass protests.
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Red line
Israel’s opposition says Netanyahu ‘crossed a red line’ with Gallant’s resignation. opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz called on fellow party members of the prime minister not to burn themselves with ‘crushing state security’. Israel’s Consul General in New York, Asaf Zamir, announced his resignation after the resignation of the Defense Minister. “I can no longer represent this government,” the top diplomat wrote on Twitter.
The Israeli government, composed of ultra-nationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties, making it the most right-wing and religious ever, wants to make radical changes that limit the influence of the Supreme Court in favor of the parliament. Critics see this as a threat to the separation of powers, but Prime Minister Netanyahu argues that it restores the balance. Protests against the plans have been going on for three months.
Hundreds of thousands of angry protesters took to the streets again on Sunday evening. Some went to the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem. They broke through the barricades, but were pushed back by the police with a water cannon, the news channel Keshet 12 reported. The police chief stated that he recognized the democratic right to demonstrate, but that he would not allow “public disturbances and damage to symbols of the government.” .
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more powerful parliament
The protests are against the proposals of Justice Minister Yariv Levin. This mainly concerns the constitutional review of laws enacted by the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. The review of whether laws conflict with the constitution now takes place at the Supreme Court, which can strike down new ‘unconstitutional’ legislation. But if it is up to Levin, parliament will soon be able to reverse that decision by a simple majority of votes.
Levin’s bill also gives the government full control over the appointment of judges, including Supreme Court justices. It will also be able to appoint to that supreme court a president and vice president who were not yet part of it and may not even have been judges of a lower court. The plans also end the independence of legal advisers from ministries and their opinions are no longer legally binding.
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Second layoff
Gallant is the second minister in a short time to be fired. In late January, Netanyahu fired Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior and Health Aryeh “Arie” Deri after a little over three weeks in office. The decision, which he made reluctantly, followed a ruling by the Supreme Court. That had assessed Deri’s appointment as “in serious contradiction to the fundamental principles of the rule of law” because of two convictions for fraud, among other things, and his promise to leave politics as part of a deal with the judiciary.
Nethanyahu called the Supreme Court ruling “an unfortunate decision that ignores the will of the people.”
Corruption process
The Netanyahu government’s controversial reform plans are overshadowing the prime minister’s trial for alleged corruption. The now 73-year-old politician has argued since he was charged in 2019 that the legal system is biased against him.
The current government took office at the end of December. Netanyahu returned as prime minister after a year and a half in the opposition. His Likud party had won the November elections. It was the fifth election in four years due to Israel’s divided political landscape.
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