Thousands of people demonstrated on Saturday evening in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities against a controversial justice reform project, a few days before a deadline deemed crucial for the rest of the process, AFP journalists noted. .
The announcement of the government project in early January gave rise to one of the largest protest movements that the country has known since its creation in 1948.
The camp of opponents to the reform thus demonstrates every Saturday evening, mainly in Tel Aviv, but also in many cities of the country.
“A democracy cannot exist without the Supreme Court. Democracy! Democracy!” chanted demonstrators in Tel Aviv.
The demonstration took place a few days before a hearing at the Supreme Court to examine appeals filed against one of the key points of the reform, adopted by Parliament in July and aimed precisely at limiting the powers of the Supreme Court that the right and Jewish religious parties consider it politicized.
“The Supreme Court is supreme,” read a banner at the rally.
“On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will have a discussion on whether the law that the government approved is legal or not,” 21-year-old protester Yuval Inbar told AFP.
“We come here because we are afraid that the government will not respect the Supreme Court,” he said.
Benjamin “Netanyahu has been taken hostage by the messianic settlers who are trying to make a revolution,” another demonstrator, Josh Drill, told AFP, referring to the Israeli Prime Minister, at the head of one of the most powerful governments. more to the right in the history of Israel.
“They are trying to (…) turn the system of government into an autocracy,” he charged.
Several thousand Israelis demonstrated Thursday evening in Jerusalem in support of the reform project.
According to the government, the reform aims, among other things, to rebalance powers, by reducing the prerogatives of the Supreme Court to the benefit of Parliament.
Opponents of the reform, for their part, fear that the proposed changes, by removing safeguards against the action of the legislative and executive power, will tip Israeli democracy towards an illiberal system.
They accuse Mr. Netanyahu, on trial for several corruption cases, of conflict of interest and of wanting this reform to get out of his legal troubles.
09/09/2023 21:53:01 – Tel Aviv (AFP) © 2023 AFP
