JERUSALEM (CNN) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday his controversial plans to weaken the judiciary would be postponed after widespread strikes and protests brought the country to a standstill.
Netanyahu said he would postpone the second and third votes on the remaining laws until after the Knesset’s Passover break in April “to allow time for a real chance for real debate.”
Netanyahu added that he was “aware of tensions” and “listening to people”.
“Out of responsibility to the nation, I have decided to … postpone the vote to allow time for discussion,” he added.
But he insisted the overhaul was necessary, and repeated criticism of the refusal to train or serve in the military to protest the proposed changes.
“Rejecting is the end of our country,” he said.
In response to Netanyahu’s announcement, Histadrut union leader Arnon Bar-David announced that a planned general strike would now be called off.
“The general strike stops from this moment,” Bar-David told CNN affiliate Channel 13, although he warned Netanyahu against relaunching the legislation.
“If the Prime Minister returns to aggressive legislation, we will face him. Legislation without consent will be met with a general strike.”
The original proposals would have amounted to the most comprehensive overhaul of Israel’s legal system since the country’s founding. The most important changes would allow a simple majority in the Knesset to overturn Supreme Court rulings; The Netanyahu government also sought to change the way judges are selected and remove the ministries’ independent legal advisers, whose opinions are binding.
But months of protests against the plans drew global attention and rocked the country. The political crisis deepened on Sunday when Netanyahu’s office issued a one-line statement announcing the sacking of Defense Secretary Yoav Gallant after he became the first cabinet member to call for a pause on the controversial plans.
In the hours that followed, Israeli society ground to a halt as anger at the law mounted. Netanyahu has also been condemned by his opponents and a host of former Israeli prime ministers.
“We’ve never been closer to breaking up. Our national security is in jeopardy, our economy is crumbling, our foreign relations are at an all-time low, we don’t know what to tell our children about their future in this country. We were taken hostage by a bunch of extremists with no brakes and no borders,” former Prime Minister Yair Lapid said in the Knesset.
While struggling to further his efforts last week, Netanyahu’s government also passed legislation making it harder to overthrow prime ministers, which critics have condemned as a self-preservation tactic.
With a final vote of 61 to 47, the Knesset approved the bill, which states that only the prime minister himself or the cabinet, with a two-thirds majority, can declare the chairman unfit. The cabinet vote would then have to be ratified by a large majority in Parliament.
Netanyahu, who is the first sitting Israeli prime minister to appear in court as a defendant, is on trial for fraud, embezzlement and bribery. He denies any wrongdoing.