Organizers say 500,000 people took part in Saturday’s protests, making them the “largest in Israeli history”.
Hundreds of thousands of people have demonstrated for the tenth straight week in cities across Israel to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government’s plans to curtail the powers of the Supreme Court.
Organizers said a record 500,000 people attended Saturday’s rallies, making them the “largest in Israeli history.”
Media in Israel put the turnout at 250,000 to 300,000 people.
The demonstrations come as Netanyahu’s government prepares to move forward with its legislative agenda next week, shunning calls for a pause to allow negotiations over divisive judicial reforms.
“I’m demonstrating because the actions the new government wants to take pose a real and imminent threat to Israeli democracy,” one protester, tech entrepreneur Ran Shahor, told AFP in the coastal city of Tel Aviv.
“It’s not judicial reform. This is a revolution [is] Making Israel a full dictatorship and I want Israel to remain a democracy for my children,” Tamir Guytsabri, 58, told Portal.
According to Israeli media, around 200,000 Israelis demonstrated in Tel Aviv, while 50,000 people protested in the northern city of Haifa and 10,000 in Beersheba – the largest in both cities so far.
The rallies were dispersed without major incident, although police arrested three protesters who were blocking traffic on Tel Aviv’s ring road.
An aerial view shows crowds of protesters in Tel Aviv, Israel, March 11, 2023 [Ilan Rosenberg/ Reuters]The uproar over the legislative changes has plunged Israel into one of its worst domestic crises. Beyond the protests, which have drawn tens of thousands of Israelis into the streets and recently turned violent, opposition has risen from across society, with business leaders and law officials speaking out against what they see as the plan’s ruinous implications.
The legislation would give the government more weight on the committee that selects judges and deny the Supreme Court the right to reject changes to the so-called Basic Laws, Israel’s quasi-constitution.
These provisions have already been approved by the legislature at first reading.
Another element of the reforms would give the 120-seat parliament the power to overturn Supreme Court decisions with a simple majority of 61 votes.
Critics say the changes would destroy the country’s system of checks and balances and concentrate power in the hands of the prime minister and his allies.
Some also say that Netanyahu, who is on trial over corruption, is being driven by personal grievances and that the overhaul could find him an escape route from the charges.
Netanyahu denies wrongdoing and says the law changes have nothing to do with his trial.
Israeli President Issac Herzog – who in his largely ceremonial role has attempted to broker the dialogue – on Thursday urged the ruling coalition to halt the legislation, calling it “a threat to the very foundations of democracy”.
However, the head of the parliament’s legal affairs committee, Simcha Rotman, has scheduled daily hearings on parts of the government reforms ahead of votes Sunday through Wednesday.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin said the coalition plans to pass key elements of the reforms before parliament goes into recess on April 2.
Judicial reform is a cornerstone of the Netanyahu government, an alliance of ultra-Orthodox Jewish and far-right parties, which took office in late December.