This Monday, like last week, Israelis marched in numbers to oppose a reform project that they consider draconian.
Several tens of thousands of people demonstrate this Monday afternoon around the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem against a justice reform project that they consider dangerous for democracy, before a vote on part of this law expected in the evening.
Like the previous Monday, a tide of Israeli flags, blue and white, swept over the gardens and streets around the Knesset, access to which is blocked by the police, according to AFP journalists on the spot. Around 2:00 p.m. (12:00 p.m. local time), the announced start of the demonstration, the crowd had already reached 30,000 people according to Israeli television channel 12. One of the organizers told the press expecting 100,000 people while thousands of others, often from far away, continue to arrive.
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“State in danger”
Access to Parliament is closed to the crowd by a police deployment, and the organizers have displayed banners like “Minister of Crime” Or “Tired of the corrupt“, while a movement calls to cut down “the walls of the dictatorship“.
The demonstrators chant slogans such as “Israel is not a dictatorship!” or “Democracy equals dialogue“. “The state is in dangerDvir Bar, a 45-year-old protester from Holon in central Israel, told AFP.
The justice reform project announced in early January by the government is mobilizing a large part of public opinion against it. This project “is a coup attempt to turn Israel into a dictatorship“says Dvir Bar.
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In Tel Aviv, demonstrations take place every Saturday evening, bringing together tens of thousands of protesters – a sign of a massive mobilization across the size of the country – denouncing this project as a whole but also the general policy of the government. , formed in December by Binyamin Netanyahu (right) with the help of far-right parties and ultra-Orthodox Jewish formations.
On February 13 already, a monster demonstration had taken place in front of the Parliament while the Commission of the laws began the examination of part of the articles of the law.
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Balancing the balance of power
The government’s plan includes the introduction of a clause “derogatoryallowing Parliament to overrule certain decisions of the Supreme Court by a simple majority. The reform also proposes changes in the process of appointing Supreme Court judges and reducing the powers of legal advisers within ministries.
For Benyamin Netanyahu and his justice minister Yariv Levin, the bill is necessary to restore a balanced balance of power between elected officials and the Supreme Court, which the Prime Minister and his allies consider politicized.
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According to its detractors, the reform, by aiming to reduce the influence of the judiciary in favor of political power, jeopardizes the democratic character of the State of Israel. “Without judicial oversight, the government can make all the political decisions it wants without any limitations.“, denounces Kovi Skier, a 33-year-old protester from Givat Shmuel, in central Israel. “He could take action against women, against Arabs, against religious […] Everyone will be affected“, he adds, his daughter in his arms.
On Sunday evening, Israeli President Isaac Herzog – who plays a mainly ceremonial role – expressed his concerns about “what is happening to israeli society“.
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Deeper divisions
“We are facing a crucial test. I see the divisions and cracks between us, which are getting deeper and deeper and more painful“, he said.
In north Tel Aviv, some 4,000 parents of primary school students demonstrated with their children, joined by members of the teaching staff. The police announced the arrest of eight activists who tried to block the entrance to the home of an elected official or the roads in the morning.
An attempt to block the house of Tally Gotlib, an elected representative of Likud, the party of Binyamin Netanyahu, was thus strongly criticized both by the Prime Minister and by his predecessor and now leader of the opposition, Yaïr Lapid. “When protesters try to block lawmakers from voting in the Knesset, it’s not a legitimate protestsaid Binyamin Netanyahu. “It’s not our way, it’s not the legal way to protestsaid Yair Lapid.
Right-wing voices have also been raised against the implementation of this reform, notably the former head of Shin Beth (internal security) Yoram Cohen who declared on Army Radio on Monday that he was “impossible to change the nature of the state judicially without broad agreement“.
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