Several thousand demonstrators waving the Israeli flag gathered again on Wednesday in Tel Aviv, to protest against the vote by Parliament of part of the reform of the judicial system carried by the right-wing government.
“You have ruined the country and we are going to fix it”, “Democracy, democracy”, shouted the demonstrators, gathered in this city which since January has become the center of the protest movement against the reform project.
Backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, which includes far-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties, the project deeply divides the country and has sparked the largest protest movement in Israel’s history.
Despite the protests, the Prime Minister and his coalition got Parliament to approve on 24 July an important clause, the first of the reform to become law, which limits the possibility for the Supreme Court to invalidate a government decision by judging its “reasonableness”.
The reform aims to increase the power of elected officials over that of magistrates. The government believes it is necessary to ensure a better balance of power, but its critics see it as a threat to democracy and fear that it opens the way to an authoritarian drift.
“I am against the government. It only puts power in the hands of a single authority,” Roei Ben Haim, a 40-year-old protester, said on Wednesday.
“Once they have ruined the system, it seems important to me to take to the streets to tell them that it will not pass,” he added. “We must show the government our resolve in any action they take.”
“There is no democracy without the Supreme Court”, shouted the demonstrators.
The protests have drawn Israelis from all political and social backgrounds, secular or religious, peace activists, blue-collar or tech workers, but also army reservists.
The project has also aroused the concern of foreign countries allied with Israel, in particular the United States where President Joe Biden has called on the country’s leaders not to rush to impose a reform which is “increasingly a source of division”.
02/08/2023 20:44:27 – Tel-Aviv (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
