Benjamin Netanyahu said: “In recent days, we are witnessing a dangerous crossing of red lines by a violent extremist group, which I am sure does not represent the majority of the demonstrators.”
He added, “Attacking policemen, closing roads, and crossing police checkpoints are not legitimate ways to express opinions, but rather violent expressions of imposing opinion.”
He also described the protest outside a hairdressing salon where his wife, Sara Netanyahu, went, as a “threatening siege”.
Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, faces unprecedented opposition over the plan, with tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrating for weeks against it.
The authorities proposed the plan last January, weeks after the ruling ultra-nationalist coalition led by Netanyahu, who formed the most extremist government in the country’s history, was sworn in.
The plan has increasingly divided Israeli society and given impetus to weekly protests every Saturday.
The controversy stems from fears that these amendments, which aim to weaken the Supreme Court and limit the powers of judges, threaten democratic institutions, while Netanyahu and his allies say they “want to curb the power of the unelected judiciary.”
“I sold Israel to the extremists”
On a related note, the former Israeli defense minister and member of the Knesset, Benny Gantz, accused Netanyahu of having “sold Israel to the extremists.”
Gantz said, “Netanyahu. I don’t think you know him (meaning Smotrich). You are a reader. Spend 15 minutes reading his decision plan. I sold the country to the extremists.”
Netanyahu comments
The reason behind this attack from Gantz is due to a tweet published by Netanyahu, in which he commented on the statements of his ally in the cabinet, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Netanyahu said in a tweet late Saturday night that Haliqah’s remarks were “inappropriate,” adding: “It is important that Finance Minister Smotrich has made it clear that he has no intention of harming the innocent or collective punishment. I know his positions and they were clear in his clarification.”
The bulk of Netanyahu’s tweet urged the international community to seek condemnations from the Palestinians over the attacks against Israelis.
On Wednesday, Smotrich said that “the (Palestinian) village of Hawara should be wiped out by Israeli forces, not by ordinary citizens.”
Last week, Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank stormed the Palestinian village of Hawara, which witnessed earlier the killing of two Israeli brothers in a Palestinian shooting attack.
Smotrich later retracted his remarks, saying that he “did not mean to erase the village,” but rather that “Israel would perform something like a surgical operation inside it against the terrorists.”
The Israeli minister’s comments sparked international outrage, with the United States describing them as “abhorrent” and urging Netanyahu to “publicly and unequivocally reject and repudiate them.”
Smotrich is the head of one of several ultra-nationalist parties helping to form Netanyahu’s government, the most right-wing of all.
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