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Yoav Gallant, a longtime member of the ruling Likud party, urged a halt to the project promoted by his prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This stems from the official’s concern regarding Israeli national security, after hundreds of Army reservists joined the protest and refused to take part in operations and training. “Anything that damages the strength of the Army and the security system must be stopped immediately,” he said.
Stop judicial reform and resume dialogue. That is the request made by Yoav Gallant, Minister of Defense of Israel, who emphasized that it is necessary to put an end to the social revolts that have taken place in the territory, the most massive in history.
“I say it loudly and publicly, for the sake of the State of Israel and our children, we must stop this legislative process,” the veteran member of Likud, the current ruling party, said in television remarks.
Gallant is the first man of weight within the ruling party to speak out openly against the reform that has raised concerns within Israel, but even in foreign allies such as the United States and Germany.
However, the official’s concerns do not lie in the discomfort of the citizenry, but in the problems that the project raised within the ranks of the Army, after hundreds of reservists refused to participate in training, operations and joined the protesters.
“We need to stop the demonstrations and protests, and seek dialogue. Anything that damages the Army’s strength and security system must be stopped immediately,” he asserted.
Gallant called for a “unifying and participatory national process” to be erected to rectify the chaos that has been unleashed in recent weeks by the controversial project. The minister added that the victory of one party, “the knesset or the streets”, will mean “the definitive loss of the State of Israel”. “We must remember that we are all brothers,” he added.
In a more internal aspect of his portfolio, he also referred to settling the differences that were created in the ranks of the Army.
“These days, in conversations and discussions behind the scenes, I have presented the security situation, asked, argued and clarified: at this moment we must stop the process so that we can sit down and talk,” he confessed.
Despite the demands of the citizens, the reform does not seem to stop. Although Netanyahu affirmed that he would seek a consensus, during the last week he reiterated that the fragment where he will empower the Executive to make the appointments of the judges, one of the most criticized points, will be approved in the coming days.
Hundreds of thousands in the streets
This Saturday, March 25, the massive protests taking place in Israel broke a record, after 630,000 people took to the streets of the main cities to repudiate the far-right judicial reform project.
In the twelfth consecutive Saturday with demonstrations, Tel Aviv was the most massive, gathering around 300,000 citizens. In other cities such as Haifa, Jerusalem and Beersheva the numbers were lower, although still large, ranging between 20,000 and 65,000 civilians.
According to the Umbrella Movements of Resistance against the Israeli Dictatorship, the entity that makes up the organizing groups, there were rejections in more than 120 points of the territory.
“We were not born yesterday and we are not protesting the temporary freezing of the judicial coup. We will not fall asleep. We demand the total repeal of the legislation and, until then, the fight will only intensify”, responded one of the organizers minutes later to Gallant’s statements.
with EFE
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