Israel Overwhelmed by Protests Netanyahu Postpones Judiciary Reform

Israel Overwhelmed by Protests, Netanyahu Postpones Judiciary Reform

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
JERUSALEM – Workers and bosses, students and professors, war veterans and high-tech kids. The general strike called by the union together with the employers paralyzes the country and accelerates the protests. “We have to stop this race into the abyss,” demands the head of the Histadrut union. What persists are universities, schools, hospitals, embassies around the world, landings and take-offs from Ben Gurion Airport. Motorists stopped in traffic at the demonstrations: even in the eleventh week of the demonstrations, Israelis took to the streets even at 1am to challenge Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to overthrow Yoav Gallant. And they never left.

The former general – and since Sunday also the former defense minister – is becoming a symbol of the institutions to be supported, as happened to Ami Esshed, the Tel Aviv district police chief who was deposed – then forced to reinstate him – by ultranationalist minister Itamar Ben Gvir – and greeted by the applause of the protesters. “The rift in society affects the army. This situation poses a serious and imminent danger to the country. I will not let it happen,” said the former official who entered politics with Netanyahu’s Likud, urging him to curb the forced advance of this justice plan, which the opposition has been pushing seen as a lightning bolt to dismantle democracy.

The speech to the nation

It was only at sunset, in a speech to the nation opened by the story of King Solomon and the two women, that the prime minister said he had “paused the legislative process to seek a broader consensus. We can’t have a civil war.” The Knesset closes for the Jewish holidays in early April, all of which have been postponed to May. “Only frozen – Ben-Gvir specifies – our plan will eventually be approved.” And he adds, in exchange for a green light to stop the creation of a National Guard under his direct orders.

possible negotiations

Yair Lapid, the only politician to defeat Netanyahu in the last thirteen years, is ready to negotiate rule changes. Avigdor Lieberman, who was Bibi’s chief of staff and ally before becoming her opponent, warns that the prime minister’s move is tactical and his aim remains to pass the laws without mediation. The White House immediately states that “a compromise is expected” at this point.

Yoav Gallant had opened the first fissure since the government announced on January 4 the project that aims to subject judges up to the Supreme Court to the scrutiny of Parliament and, above all, to the majority that speaks at that moment. Netanyahu is currently putting together a coalition from the majority that is trying to break the balance of power for various reasons. Bibi, as he is known, reiterates that the ongoing corruption trial against him is a judicial coup to remove him from power. That’s what loyalists like David Bitan have been shouting about for the last few years, but now he wants a break, he understands – as a local boss who grew up in the Likud – that the moderates in the party don’t want total confrontation.

The Knesset

At least 100,000 people from all over the country gathered in front of the Knesset in the evening, the unions ordered the trains to run in such a way that the demonstrators could reach Jerusalem and the parliament. While Yair Levin, the justice minister, and Simcha Rotman, the head of the commission, refused to interrupt the vote on the new regulations, they actually pushed to be able to approve the most important ones by the weekend. Supported by extremists like Bezalel Smotrich, finance minister and settler leader: “We are the majority, we make our voices heard. Let’s not let the election victory and the state be stolen from us”.

Maximum alert

The gangs inspired by rapper L’Ombra and the racist ultras of La Familia, supporters of Beitar Jerusalem, are responding to calls from the far right via social media: “Come with guns, knives, on tractors,” the organizers write. Police are raising the alert and the Shin Bet, the internal intelligence agency, is warning that the risk of attacks on anti-government protesters is real. The demonstrations have so far been largely non-violent, with riot police using water cannon to clear groups blocking major thoroughfares in recent weeks.