Tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets of cities across the country on Sunday night in a spontaneous outburst of anger after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly fired his defense minister for questioning the Israeli leader’s judicial review plan.
Protesters in Tel Aviv blocked a main road and lit large bonfires, while police fought with protesters who gathered outside Netanyahu’s private home in Jerusalem.
The unrest deepened a months-long crisis surrounding Netanyahu’s judicial transformation plan that has sparked mass protests, alarmed business leaders and former security chiefs, and raised concerns among the United States and other close allies.
Netanyahu’s sacking of Defense Secretary Yoav Gallant signaled that the prime minister and his allies will move forward with the overhaul plan this week. Gallant was the first senior member of the ruling Likud party to oppose it, saying the deep divisions threatened to weaken the military.
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On Monday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog called for an immediate halt to the government’s controversial plan. Herzog, who has a largely ceremonial role, took to Twitter after the large demonstrations in Tel Aviv.
And as throngs of protesters poured into the streets late Sunday night, Likud ministers began signaling their readiness to hit the brakes. Culture Minister Micky Zohar, a Netanyahu confidant, said the party will support him if he decides to suspend the judiciary review.
Israeli media said the leaders of Netanyahu’s coalition would meet on Monday morning. Later in the day, the grassroots protest movement announced it would hold another mass demonstration in front of the Knesset, or Parliament, in Jerusalem.
US National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement Sunday night that the NSC was “deeply concerned by developments in Israel today.”
“Democratic societies are strengthened by checks and balances, and fundamental changes towards a democratic system should be pursued with the widest possible popular support,” Watson added. “We continue to urge the Israeli leadership to find a compromise as soon as possible.”
Asaf Zamir, Consul General of Israel in New York, said he would step down shortly after Gallant’s sacking.
“Today’s dangerous decision to sack the defense minister has convinced me that I can no longer represent this government,” Zamir said in a letter of resignation shared on Twitter. “I am increasingly concerned about the policies of the new government and in particular the judicial reform it is spearheading. I believe that this reform undermines the foundation of our democratic system and threatens the rule of law in our country.
He will be replaced by Avi Dichter, a former head of the Shin Bet security agency. Dichter had reportedly flirted with joining Gallant but instead announced on Sunday that he would support the prime minister.
In a brief statement late Sunday, Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister had sacked Gallant. Netanyahu later tweeted: “We must all stand strong against rejection.”
Demonstrators blocked Tel Aviv’s main thoroughfare on Sunday, turning the Ayalon highway into a sea of blue-and-white Israeli flags and lighting a huge bonfire in the middle of the street. Demonstrations took place in Beersheba, Haifa and Jerusalem, where thousands of people gathered in front of Netanyahu’s private home.
An aerial view of the streets as Israelis continue to protest the Israeli government’s plan to introduce judicial changes seen by the opposition as an attempt to reduce the powers of the judiciary in favor of the executive as part of ‘Day of the Resistance’ in Tel Aviv, Israel on March 25, 2023. Gitai Palti/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Police tussled with protesters and sprayed the crowd with water cannons.
Inon Aizik, 27, said he came to demonstrate outside Netanyahu’s home in central Jerusalem because “bad things are happening in this country,” and described the judiciary overhaul as “a quick flash of the law.”
The decision to sack Gallant came less than a day after the former senior general called for a pause in controversial legislation until after next month’s Independence Day holiday, citing unrest within the military over the plan.
Gallant had expressed concern that the divisions in society would hurt morale in the military and embolden Israel’s enemies across the region. “I see the source of our strength eroding,” Gallant said.
While several other Likud members had indicated they might follow Gallant, the party quickly closed ranks on Sunday, clearing the way for his sacking.
Galit Distal Atbaryan, Netanyahu’s minister of public diplomacy, said Netanyahu called Gallant to his office and told him “that he no longer has confidence in him and that’s why he’s being fired.”
Gallant tweeted shortly after the announcement that “the security of the State of Israel has always been, and always will be, my life’s work.”
Opposition leader Yair Lapid said Gallant’s sacking “damages national security and ignores warnings from all defense officials”.
“The Israeli Prime Minister is a threat to the security of the State of Israel,” Lapid wrote on Twitter.
Netanyahu’s government is this week pushing for a parliamentary vote on a key piece of the revision — a law that would give the ruling coalition the final say on all judge appointments. It is also attempting to pass legislation that would give Parliament the power to overrule Supreme Court decisions by a simple majority and limit judicial review of laws.
Netanyahu and his allies say the plan will restore the balance between the judiciary and the executive branch and rein in what they see as an interventionist court with liberal sympathies.
But critics say the constellation of laws will remove controls and counterbalances in Israel’s democratic system and concentrate power in the hands of the ruling coalition. They also say Netanyahu, who is on trial over corruption charges, has a conflict of interest.
Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets over the past three months to protest the plan in the largest demonstrations in the country’s 75-year history.
Israeli protesters take to the streets after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the sacking of Defense Minister Yoav Galant. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sacked Defense Minister Yoav Galant after urging the government to halt its controversial judicial reform, a spokesman for Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party has said. Ilia Yefimovich/Picture Alliance via Getty Images
Leaders of Israel’s vibrant high-tech industry have said the changes will deter investors, former top security officials have opposed the plan, and key allies including the United States and Germany have expressed concerns.
In recent weeks, discontent has risen even within the Israeli army – the most popular and respected institution among Israel’s Jewish majority. More and more Israeli reservists, including fighter pilots, have threatened to withdraw from voluntary service in recent weeks.
Israel’s military faces escalating fighting in the occupied West Bank, threats from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and concerns that nemesis Iran is on the verge of developing nuclear weapons.
Violence in both Israel and the occupied West Bank has escalated in recent weeks to levels not seen in years.
Manuel Trajtenberg, head of an influential Israeli think tank, the Institute for National Security Studies, said that “Netanyahu can fire his defense minister, he cannot ignore the warnings he heard from Gallant.”
Meanwhile, an Israeli good governance group on Sunday asked the country’s Supreme Court to fine Netanyahu for allegedly violating a conflict of interest agreement designed to prevent him from dealing with the country’s judiciary while he was accused of corruption is before the court.
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, a staunch opponent of the restructuring, asked the court to force Netanyahu to obey the law and punish him with either a fine or jail time if he didn’t. It said he was not above the law.
“A prime minister who does not obey the court and the provisions of the law is privileged and an anarchist,” said Eliad Shraga, the group’s leader, echoing the language Netanyahu and his allies used against protesters opposed to the overhaul . “The Prime Minister will be forced to bow his head to the law and comply with the terms of the law.”
The PM replied that the appeal should be dismissed, saying the Supreme Court had no reason to intervene.
Netanyahu is being prevented by the country’s Attorney General from dealing directly with his administration’s plan to reform the judiciary, based on a conflict of interest agreement to which he is bound and which the Supreme Court recognized in a ruling on Netanyahu’s fitness, during the process to serve corruption. Instead, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, a close associate of Netanyahu, is leading the overhaul.
But on Thursday, after parliament passed legislation making it harder to unseat an incumbent prime minister, Netanyahu said he was relieved of the attorney general’s decision and vowed to venture into the crisis and “fix the rift” in the nation close. That statement prompted Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to warn that Netanyahu was breaching his conflict of interest agreement by interfering in the fight.
The rapid legal and political developments have catapulted Israel into uncharted territory and a burgeoning constitutional crisis, said Guy Lurie, a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem-based think tank.
“We are at the beginning of a constitutional crisis in the sense that there are disagreements about the source of authority and legitimacy of various governing bodies,” he said.
Netanyahu is on trial for fraud, breach of trust and bribes in three separate cases involving wealthy associates and powerful media moguls. He denies wrongdoing and dismisses critics who say he will seek a way out of the charges through the legal overhaul.
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