JERUSALEM – Tens of thousands of protesters marched into Jerusalem Saturday night and hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets in Tel Aviv and other cities in a last show of force to block Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial judicial reform.
Also on Saturday, more than 100 former Israeli security chiefs signed a letter urging the Israeli prime minister to stop the law, and thousands of other military reservists said they would no longer report for duty in protest at the plan.
In scorching temperatures of up to 33°C (91°F), the procession to Jerusalem transformed the city’s main entrance into a sea of blue and white Israeli flags as protesters completed the final leg of a four-day, 70-kilometer (45-mile) trek from Tel Aviv to Israel’s Parliament.
The protesters, who swelled from hundreds to thousands over the course of the march, were greeted by crowds of cheering protesters in Jerusalem before setting up camp in rows of small white tents in front of the Knesset or Parliament ahead of Monday’s expected vote. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands flooded the streets of the coastal city of Tel Aviv, the country’s business and cultural capital, as well as in Beersheba, Haifa and Netanya.
Netanyahu and his far-right allies claim the overhaul is necessary to curb what they see as excessive powers of unelected judges. However, its critics say the plan will destroy the system of separation of powers and put the country on the path to authoritarian rule.
US President Joe Biden has urged Netanyahu to stop the plan and seek a broad consensus.
The proposed overhaul drew harsh criticism from business and medical leaders, and a rapidly growing number of military reservists in key units have said they will no longer report for duty if the plan is adopted, raising fears the country’s security interests could be at risk. According to the Brothers in Arms protest group, which represents retired soldiers, another 10,000 reservists announced on Saturday night that they were suspending their service.
More than 100 senior former security chiefs, including retired military commanders, police commissioners and chiefs of intelligence agencies, joined those calls on Saturday, signing a letter to Netanyahu blaming him for compromising Israel’s military and urging him to stop the legislation.
Signers included Ehud Barak, a former Israeli prime minister, and Moshe Yaalon, a former army chief and defense minister. Both are political rivals to Netanyahu.
“The legislation destroys the things that divide Israeli society, tears people apart, disbands the IDF and deals mortal blows to Israel’s security,” the former officials wrote.
“The legislative process violates the social contract that has existed for 75 years between the Israeli government and thousands of reserve officers and soldiers from land, air, sea and intelligence who for many years volunteered for the reserves in defense of the democratic State of Israel and are now heartbroken to announce that they are ceasing their voluntary service,” the letter reads.
Israel Katz, a senior cabinet minister of Netanyahu’s Likud party, said the bill would be passed one way or another on Monday.
“I represent citizens who are unwilling to withdraw their vote because of threats of refusal to serve” or those blocking the airport, motorways and train stations, he told Channel 12 TV. “This is clearly an attempt to use military service to force the government to change policy.”
After seven straight months of the most sustained and intense demonstrations the country has ever seen, the grassroots protest movement has reached its peak.
Parliament is expected to vote on Monday on a measure that would limit the Supreme Court’s powers of scrutiny by preventing judges from rejecting government decisions on the grounds that they are “inappropriate”.
Proponents say the current standard of “reasonableness” gives judges undue powers in the decision-making of elected officials. But critics say scrapping the standard, which is rarely used, would allow the government to make arbitrary decisions, make inappropriate appointments or dismissals and open the floodgates to corruption.
Monday’s vote would be the first major piece of legislation to be passed.
The revision also calls for other wide-ranging changes designed to limit the powers of the judiciary, from limiting the Supreme Court’s ability to challenge parliamentary decisions to changing the way judges are selected.
Protesters, who make up a large part of Israeli society, see the reform as a power grab fueled by various personal and political grievances from Netanyahu, who is on trial on corruption charges, and his partners, who want to deepen Israel’s control over the occupied West Bank and uphold controversial exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men.
In a speech on Thursday, Netanyahu endorsed the reform and dismissed allegations that the plan would destroy Israel’s democratic foundations as absurd.
“This is an attempt to mislead you about something that has no basis in reality,” he said. Concerned about the growing number of reservists going off duty, the country’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, reportedly pushed for a postponement of Monday’s vote, according to Israeli media. It was unclear if others would join him.