Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Monday that his controversial judicial reform, which has plunged the country into one of the greatest political and social crises in its history, will be postponed until the end of April. Netanyahu has decided to postpone the parliamentary vote as the situation has threatened to deteriorate over the past 48 hours, with the sacking of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, new massive demonstrations and a strike that has since paralyzed ports and part of the main airport . He presented it in a televised address from Jerusalem as a “pause in authentic dialogue” for “national responsibility” and to avoid “civil war” with the biblical parable of “Solomonic decision”. However, he made it clear that the project was not canceled. Immediately after the speech, the union headquarters announced the end of the strike.
The leaders of the main opposition parties have indicated their readiness for dialogue. Former Prime Minister and leader of Yesh Atid, Yair Lapid, has stressed that it must be led by President Isaac Herzog and result in the drafting of a constitution, which Israel lacks, guided by a basic set of laws. “Israel is wounded and we cannot put a plaster on it,” he said.
In a less suspicious tone than Lapid about Netanyahu’s intentions, Benny Gantz (National Unity) has declared that he will sit at the negotiating table “with an open heart” and will not “convince” with the aim of reaching an agreement without losers. promoter of reform. “I’m not happy, we shouldn’t have gotten to this point. I am against this government and will continue to do so,” he qualified.
Governments normally have a 100-day grace period, but it took Netanyahu’s coalition of the far-right and ultra-Orthodox just 88 to raise the specter of a civil war that ends up half-heartedly and reluctantly giving in while the country is already deeply divided. A good chunk of the hundreds of thousands who took to the streets Saturday after Saturday belonged to the half of Israel that lost November’s elections, but others who voted for coalition parties also eventually joined.
A demonstrator chants anti-Netanyahu government slogans outside the parliament gates in Jerusalem. HAZEM BADER (AFP)
A protester holds a placard mocking Israeli Minister of National Security chief Itamar Ben-Gvir in Jerusalem on Monday AMMAR AWAD (Portal)
Israeli mounted police officers stand guard as a protester makes a heart gesture during protests in Jerusalem on Monday. HAZEM BADER (AFP)
Aerial footage of Monday’s protest showing the banner reading ‘Save Our Startup Nation’ STRINGER (Portal)
Demonstrators with the flags of Israel and Gay Pride in front of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament). AHMAD GHARABLI (AFP)
Israelis protest during a demonstration Monday March 27 near the Supreme Court of Israel. ILAN ROSENBERG (Portal)
Long lines at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv after several flights were canceled amid protests. GIL COHEN-MAGEN (AFP)
Two workers at Ben Gurion Airport (Jerusalem) look on Monday March 27 at a departure board which has been canceled until further notice due to widespread strikes in protest at a judicial review. Amir Levy (EL PAÍS)
Demonstrators gather in front of the Knesset before the massive protests in Jerusalem March 27, 2023. ATEF SAFADI (EFE)
Women dressed as girls from The Handmaid’s Tale take part in a demonstration in Jerusalem on Monday, March 27. AMMAR AWAD (Portal)
Hundreds of people block the Ayalon highway in Tel Aviv this Sunday. Guy Yechiely (EFE)
Several demonstrators hold up the national flag of Israel during protests in Jerusalem on Sunday. RONEN ZVULUN (Portal)
Demonstrators in Jerusalem during Sunday night protests. RONEN ZVULUN (Portal)
Demonstrators in Jerusalem are demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. AMMAR AWAD (Portal)
Dozens of people are protesting in Tel Aviv this Sunday. NIR ELIAS (Portal)
A protester was arrested during protests in Jerusalem this Sunday. RONEN ZVULUN (Portal)
A water cannon is used against protesters in Jerusalem. RONEN ZVULUN (Portal)
Hundreds of people protested in Tel Aviv this Sunday against the sacking of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Omri Kedem (EFE)
In the afternoon, just before the prime minister’s speech, the head of national security and leader of the far-right Jewish power party, Itamar Ben Gvir, announced an agreement with Netanyahu to temporarily cripple her in exchange for promoting her “through dialogue.” more forward. “I have agreed to withdraw the veto on the rejection of the law in exchange for a commitment from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it will be submitted to the Knesset for approval in the next parliamentary season,” he told Ben Gvir, one of his key supporters. In return, he assured, a National Guard would be created under his command.
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The announcement marks a step backwards for Netanyahu given the resilience of protesters and opposition and the contagion of the armed forces by the crises. The prime minister, who leads the right-wing Likud party, has lowered his sails just 24 hours after Gallant was sacked over the same cause he finally announced and after weeks of branding the protesters as anarchists, suggesting that they received foreign funds, and the alternative rejected the President’s consensus proposal. Only recently has the tone changed, agreeing to delay the processing of some of the laws and softening one of the most sensitive, while others followed their parliamentary course.
A poll aired by national television channel 11 after Netanyahu’s speech shows the electoral attrition suffered by the Likud and far-right parties in relation to the election results of just four months ago. Netanyahu’s formation would fall from 32 to 25 seats and the Religious Zionist list from 14 to 11. The big beneficiary would be Gantz, who would jump from 12 to 21. According to this data, today’s opposition could easily form a government.
Netanyahu has spoken as around 100,000 people demonstrate in different parts of the country, particularly outside Parliament in Jerusalem, where the ruling coalition topped hours before a no-confidence motion with 60 yes and 51 no motions in the second vote. A few hundred have taken part in a counter-demonstration, which has raised fears of clashes between supporters and opponents of the reform, although clashes have occasionally broken out.
Coalition MPs, including Ben Gvir and also far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, throughout the day called for people to join the counter-demonstration in Jerusalem with the slogan: “They will not steal our elections.” One cause for concern was the history of the Violence by La Familia, as the ultras of Jerusalem’s Beitar football team are known. In fact, prior to this Monday, Netanyahu had spoken only to tweet “urging all protesters in Jerusalem, left and right, to behave responsibly and not to act violently.” “We are brothers,” he wrote. The police stepped up their efforts.
union effort
Israel’s major trade union center, the Histadrut (General Organization of Israeli Workers), launched a general strike this morning that disrupted part of the daytime departures from the main airport (Ben Gurion, near Tel Aviv) and the strategic ports of Haifa and Ashdod. Staff at foreign embassies, major banks, the national electricity company, major hotel, fashion and grocery chains, and Tel Aviv City Hall (whose mayor Ron Huldai is a member of the opposition Labor Party) also joined the strike. The Histadrut, “which for historical reasons retains considerable power in the country,” announced that it would only stop the general strike if Netanyahu announced later in the day that it would put the brakes on reform, as it did in the end.
The legislative reform, tabled in early January, aims to weaken the Supreme Court, change the way its judges are elected and allow Parliament to re-approve laws previously struck down by the court. The government has defended its need to rebalance powers before a Supreme Court it said had too much power and acted politically. For its critics, it is an attack on the separation of powers that endangers Israeli democracy.
Netanyahu this afternoon met Ben Gvir, whose announcement seems to guarantee the stability of the coalition with the ultra-nationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties, the most far-right in the country’s seven decades of history. Another key supporter of the reform, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, had already made it clear that as a member of the Likud, he would respect any Netanyahu decision. “We must all strive to stabilize the government and the coalition” in “a situation where everyone is doing what they think may lead to the immediate overthrow of the government and the collapse of the Likud,” he said.
Protesters in Tel Aviv in the early morning hours from Sunday to Monday NIR ELIAS (Portal)
In the morning, Herzog again called for the “immediate” stop to the reform discussed in parliament. “The whole nation is gripped by fear. Our security, economy, society… they are all under threat,” he said in a statement, expressing concern at the deterioration in coexistence. “I call on the leaders of all factions in the Knesset (Israel’s parliament), both coalition and opposition, to put the country’s citizens above all else and act boldly and responsibly without further delay. This is not a political moment, it is a moment of leadership and responsibility.”
Aryeh Deri, the leader of the ultra-Orthodox Sephardic Shas Party, who is also on the executive branch, spoke in the same vein last week. After consulting with the formation’s spiritual leaders, he indicated that he would support “any decision” made by Netanyahu and the Likud, despite being a key player in future reform. The Supreme Court annulled his appointment as Minister of Home Affairs and Health in January, saying it was “extremely unreasonable” because he had been convicted of a tax offense and the explicit change in legislation allowing it. One of the reform bills, approved at first reading and dubbed “Deri 2” by the media because of its tailor-made suit for the former minister, would prevent the Supreme Court from intervening in “all matters relating to the appointment of a minister” or his dismissal”.
Gallant’s ouster on Saturday brought tens of thousands of people onto the streets across the country, with Tel Aviv once again as the epicenter. The call was made spontaneously via WhatsApp groups and spread to the cities of Jerusalem, Haifa, Beer Sheva and Petaj Tikva. Protesters in Tel Aviv blocked the vital Ayalón highway for five hours, which police did not evacuate until 3am (2am in mainland Spain) when barely a thousand people remained.
On Saturday, as hundreds of thousands of Israelis (in a country of fewer than 10 million people) took part in what is likely the largest anti-reform demonstration, Gallant publicly called for the reform to be stopped because of the security implications of the political and economic fallout from the reform, such as the Number of Bundeswehr reservists who refuse to take on certain tasks. “The growing divisions in our society are penetrating into the armed forces and security forces, posing a clear, immediate and palpable threat to the security of the state. I won’t let it happen,” he said.
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