Some 150,000 Israelis have demonstrated this Saturday against the judicial reform promoted by the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu, according to calculations by local media. These are the first protests held after the Prime Minister announced the postponement of his controversial initiative. The attendance has been lower than in the 12 previous Saturdays, in which hundreds of thousands came to congregate, but it shows that a part of the country wants to continue in the streets until the controversial legal change is annulled ―which would be a blow to the division of powers―, and it is not satisfied with what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced last Monday: his delay until the next parliamentary season, which begins at the end of April and ends in July. They fear it is just a delaying strategy.
On Tuesday, negotiations began between the government and the opposition regarding the reform under the auspices of the president, Isaac Herzog. The head of the opposition, the former Prime Minister Yair Lapid, participates in this dialogue, but has also attended the demonstration. “We remain on guard, the danger has not passed,” he tweeted.
The two largest protests have taken place in the cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa. In the first, American flags could be seen among the usual Israeli ones, as a sign of support for President Joe Biden in his clash this week with Netanyahu. There have also been rallies with thousands of participants in Jerusalem (with writer David Grossman) and Raanana, as well as smaller ones in about 150 locations across the country.
The organizers of the protests fear that the plenary of the Knesset will approve some of the key laws of the reform at any time because the Justice Commission already did so last Monday, before Netanyahu’s speech. The Government assures that it does not intend to promote it, but several opposition leaders consider it “negotiating with a gun on the table.”
Some of the protest calls include anger over the compensation obtained by the Minister of National Security and leader of the far-right Jewish Power party, Itamar Ben Gvir, in exchange for giving the green light to pause the reform. It is about the creation of a new security body that will be under his command, the National Guard. He figured in the government agreements, but it was a clear quid pro quo. Ben Gvir was in charge of disseminating the signed text in which it was embodied. Its approval is scheduled for this Sunday, at the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers.
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The demonstrations come two days after thousands of supporters of the reform took to the streets of Tel Aviv, carrying banners such as “The people chose judicial reform” and “Democracy at the polls.” They consider that a series of non-elected powers (military commanders, judges and the media) hold back the executive power, which since last December has been in the hands of Netanyahu’s Likud and the far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties, which make up the most right-wing coalition of the history of Israel. Some 300 of the demonstrators temporarily blocked the city’s Ayalón highway, in a movement that mirrors that of the reform’s detractors at each protest.
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