Israel has been simmering since the beginning of the year. The reason is the planned judicial reform of the new Netanyahu government. Shortly before the first vote in the Knesset, tens of thousands of people once again took to the streets in Jerusalem and shouted: “Israel is not a dictatorship.”
Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Jerusalem against the ultra-right government’s planned judicial reform. People from all over Israel flocked towards Parliament. Many carried Israeli flags and chanted “Israel is not a dictatorship” or “Democracy means dialogue”. In the evening, the first vote on part of the controversial judicial reform is to take place in the Knesset.
The reform plans of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing religious coalition would, among other things, allow parliament to revoke decisions by the Supreme Court with a simple majority – and thus almost completely abolish its power to legally review laws.
The vote this Monday will initially involve changing the composition of the committee that appoints the judges. A panel of politicians, judges and members of the bar association is currently voting on this. The reform would give the government a virtual majority in the nomination process.
According to the Israeli television station Channel 12, around 30,000 people took part in the protest in Jerusalem. One of the organizers expressed hope that the number would increase later. A protest convoy of dozens of cars drove on the highway to Jerusalem, while around 4,000 parents, school children and teachers demonstrated in the north of Tel Aviv.
The police cordoned off access to Parliament in Jerusalem. “The state is in danger,” said Dvir Bar, a 45-year-old protester from Holon. The reform is “an attempted coup aimed at turning Israel into a dictatorship,” he added.
“I’m really concerned,” said pediatrician Adi Aran. With the planned judicial reform, Israel could stop “being a state for my children to live in,” said Aran, who lives in the Har Adar settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
In Tel Aviv, eight people were arrested for violating public order and disobeying orders, according to the police. Prime Minister Netanyahu accused the leaders of the protests of “trampling on democracy” and not accepting the election results. He has declared his willingness to hold talks with the opposition, but at the same time stressed that he wants to press ahead with the reform without delay. “The people’s representatives will exercise their right to vote here in the Israeli parliament,” said Netanyahu.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who actually has a predominantly ceremonial role, expressed his “concern about what is happening in Israeli society” on Sunday. He sees the current situation as an existential crisis. “We are facing a fateful test. I see the rifts and rifts between us, which this time will be deeper and more painful,” said Herzog.
In Israel, there have been demonstrations for several weeks against the judicial reform announced by the government at the beginning of January. Tens of thousands of people gather in Tel Aviv every Saturday night. Numerous people took to the streets in Jerusalem last Monday.
The massive mobilization is directed against the judicial reform, but also against government policy in general. Netanyahu regained power at the end of December with the help of a right-wing religious alliance. It is the country’s most right-wing government to date.
Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann also commented on the question of the independence of the judiciary. When he opened the Rosenburg exhibition in Tel Aviv, which dealt with the Nazi past of lawyers in the Federal Ministry of Justice between 1949 and 1973, he emphasized that conclusions had to be drawn for the present: “The majority should never have the last word – this can only have an independent judiciary.”
