Despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suspending the contentious judicial reform more than a month ago, there are still widespread protests taking place.
Even though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shelved the overhaul more than a month ago, thousands of Israelis protested for an unprecedented 18th week in a row against the hard-right government’s divisive judicial reforms.
According to AFP, hundreds of protesters gathered in the Israeli flag-waving city of Rehovot in the center of the country and blocked a busy intersection.
In preparation for a march with Israeli flags and anti-Netanyahu chants to Kaplan Street, thousands gathered in Tel Aviv’s Habima square.
An image of the far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir with the caption “the minister of national failure” was held aloft by one protester.
The number of protesters was not immediately estimated by the Israeli police.
The Netanyahu government was allegedly preparing to transform Israel into a “messianic and dangerous dictatorship,” according to a statement issued earlier by protest organizers.
They emphasized the financial cost of the government’s decision to continue with the reforms rather than abandon them entirely and instead have been holding talks with opposition representatives at President Isaac Herzog’s invitation for the past month.
The organizers stated, “As long as the deliberations continue in the president’s house, no investment is entering Israel, and the Israeli economy is crashing.”
Advocates of the legal changes guarantee they are important to rebalance power between the parts of government. They are viewed as a threat to democracy by critics.
After weeks of mass protests and a general strike, Netanyahu announced a “pause” in reform legislation on March 27.
He informed the nation’s legislature, “Out of a sense of national responsibility, out of a will to prevent a rupture among our people, I have decided to pause the second and third readings of the bill.”
The protests have continued unabated ever since.
Impact on Palestinians
The following three areas, which overlap and cannot be separated, have been the focus of the 37th Israeli government’s policy guidelines: expansion of settlements, national security, and sovereignty.
These rules uncover the target of the new government: to firmly establish Israel as a Jewish supremacy that is not democratic and is prone to settler-racist fascism, which does not recognize the rights of the Palestinian people.
Israel’s coalition leaders’ new guidelines, according to government officials, aim to restore a balance between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Israeli Equity Pastor Yariv Levin reported in January the legal changes and an extensive arrangement to execute them in stages.
These modifications fall into four categories: 1) A slew of laws that deprive the judiciary of oversight power; 2) a change to the Israeli Basic Law that gives the Israeli parliament (Knesset) the power to invalidate laws and specifies the conditions for doing so; 3) The government’s tightening grip on the appointment of judges; 4) a modification to the method by which ministers, government officials, and the Attorney General are appointed.
Limiting the Supreme Court’s authority to overturn Knesset-passed laws deemed unconstitutional and in violation of Israel’s Basic Laws is one of the proposed reforms.
Members of parliament would be able to use the change to overturn decisions made by the high court and reinstate laws that had been overturned before. The ruling coalition is working to pass this proposed law with a simple majority of 61 Knesset members, despite the fact that this is a very extreme step.
