Anti-reform protesters rallied in Tel Aviv and elsewhere on Thursday night to demonstrate against the Netanyahu government’s push to reshape Israel’s independent judiciary, as the threat of passage of a law removing a key control over government power has fueled sentiment.
At least 15 protesters were arrested in Tel Aviv and Ra’anana on suspicion of violating public order and assaulting officials, police said.
The northbound lanes of the Ayalon Freeway did not open until after midnight, although traffic began flowing in the other direction earlier; Demonstrators, who initially gathered in Habima Square, blocked Tel Aviv’s main thoroughfare several times during the evening. Activists set fires, banged drums and tried to evade police efforts to push them off the roadway.
The scene repeated itself more or less throughout the day and into the night, as activists opposed to the government’s judicial reforms blocked intersections and held demonstrations in locations across the country. In Rana’ana, an affluent sleeping area north of Tel Aviv, protesters blocked a key intersection on Highway 4 for several hours.
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In Tel Aviv, police used mounted officers and a water cannon to force protesters off the road and prevent further traffic disruption.
According to police, seven protesters were arrested for disturbing public order, one of them for assaulting officers.
In Ra’anana, police said they had arrested eight people on suspicion of disturbing public order.
Police said the eight suspects failed to respond to orders to clear the street and were subsequently arrested for questioning. The flow of traffic has been restored, the police said.
In both locations, activists gathered outside police stations demanding the release of their comrades, protest group Brothers and Sisters in Arms said.
Demonstrations on Thursday were amplified by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s televised address to the nation, in which he defended his hard-line coalition’s unilateral moves to reform the judiciary and denied that the legislative push posed a threat to democracy.
Israelis protest in Tel Aviv on July 20, 2023 against the government’s plans for judicial reform. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
The prime minister also claimed efforts were still being made to secure broad agreement on the “adequacy” bill, even as lawmakers in his coalition speeded up passage of the law early next week.
The controversial legislation seeks to prevent the court from applying the “reasonableness” test when assessing decisions made by the government or elected officials. If passed, the proposal could pave the way for the return to cabinet of Shas leader Aryeh Deri, whose appointment as home secretary was dismissed by the Supreme Court as “unfounded” on tax misdemeanor charges.
The protest organizers called Netanyahu’s speech “a speech full of lies and hate speech” and argued that the prime minister “rather than keep the country intact is opting for dictatorship.”
“This is the time for citizens to go out and resist,” they said, as protests that began ahead of the address gathered momentum in numerous locations across the country, including Jerusalem.
The massive wave of protests included rallies outside the homes of coalition ministers, blocking of freeways, disruption of airport operations and other forms of civil disobedience. The ministers were outraged by what they felt was an overly gentle treatment of protesters, who harass and harass them everywhere, staging protests in front of their homes and blocking key roads for hours.
Israelis protest against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to reform the judicial system outside the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City on Thursday, July 20, 2023. (AP/Mahmoud Illea)
In Neve Ilan, outside Jerusalem, activists criticized National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has urged police to be more aggressive in cracking down on protests.
Thursday’s chaos mirrored protests that took place two days earlier, when protesters staged a “Day of Resistance”, blockading roads and trains and picketing various officers.
In recent days, there has also been a wave of Israel Defense Forces reservists who publicly pledged to freeze their volunteer service to protest the government’s push, increasing pressure on the government.
Anti-renovation protesters leaving Tel Aviv early Wednesday are on a days-long march to Jerusalem that will culminate on Saturday in front of the Knesset, where organizers plan to pitch tents and stay there indefinitely while the coalition prepares to pass the “reasonableness” law before the Knesset closes for the month of August.
The group, marching through Lehi Forest in a huge column that reached 10,000 at its peak, reached Kibbutz Nahshon, about halfway to the capital, by evening. Tents waited for those who wished to lie down before continuing the march early the next morning.
They were acclaimed by the organizers, who set up food tables and held a “Festival of Democracy” in a large field in the center of the kibbutz.
The march met little resistance during the day’s parade, except for a few disgruntled motorists who passed the demonstration on the other side of Highway 3.
Anti-overhaul protesters march toward Kibbutz Nahshon on Highway 3 on July 20, 2023, blocking half of the road. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)
Protests have intensified in recent weeks after the government resumed its stormy push to limit judicial powers. These measures are necessary to correct years of abuse by the courts. Critics argue that the bills would drastically weaken the judiciary and its ability to control government power, jeopardizing Israel’s status as a liberal democracy.
President Isaac Herzog, his US counterpart Joe Biden and others have urged Netanyahu to slow down, but the prime minister is also facing intense pressure from coalition partners who want to pursue their right-wing and ultra-Orthodox political agenda without court interference.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu’s Likud party rejected an offer by Benny Gantz, leader of the opposition National Unity party, to resume talks on the condition that Netanyahu commits to reforming the judiciary only by consensus. Hours later, the Knesset’s Constitutional Committee has resolved over 27,000 opposition objections to the “Adequacy Bill” and forwarded it to the Knesset for final passage sometime next week.
In his speech on Thursday, Netanyahu said the real threat to Israel’s democracy lies not in his government’s efforts to abolish the separation of powers in the Knesset and bring most judge appointments under political control, but in a refusal to show up for reserve duty, which many have threatened if the “adequacy” law is passed.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid, who also rejected Gantz’s offer on Wednesday, responded to Netanyahu’s speech by accusing the prime minister of having “torn the country apart rather than uniting it.”
He said the opposition had repeatedly called on Netanyahu to “stop legislation, return to the presidential residence and make sweeping agreements – I repeat that call.”
“Those responsible for what is happening today in the economy, for the divide in our social fabric and especially for the damage to security, [and] “Whoever causes the army to disintegrate from within is the most extremist government in the country’s history,” Lapid said. “The responsibility lies with them.”