The opposition to the judicial reform of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is trying to regain initiative with actions on various fronts this Tuesday after the first law weakening the Supreme Court was passed in parliament. Doctors are on a 24-hour strike across the country except in Jerusalem, called by the union that represents them. The administration filed an action for annulment in the Labor Court this morning. In addition, the high-tech industry, which was very active in the protests that began in January, paid for a front-page black ad in five print newspapers. And six lawsuits have already been brought to the Supreme Court to review the new and controversial rule, which removes the court’s ability to overturn any government, ministerial or elected official decision it deems inappropriate.
Hospitals at least work in Shabbat mode. The emergency services have not changed their operations. Yes, the Four Boxes Health Centers, as the organizations that provide health services to the vast majority of Israelis are called, are closed.
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At the request of Minister Moshe Arbel, technicians from the Ministry of Health prepared a motion to end the strike, which was submitted to the courts. In the text, they assure that this attitude is not a “legitimate means” of protest, but “an end in itself”, which is why “it is necessary to examine the question of good faith,” according to Israeli public broadcaster. The conveners argue that this suspension of the review of the reasonableness of government decisions, approved by the Knesset on Monday, could affect them in filling positions, for example.
In addition, five major Israeli newspapers have appeared on newsstands with a black front page with a single small message in white letters – “A black day for Israeli democracy” – and the date of this Tuesday. The back cover reads “Israel’s locomotive will never give up,” referring to the high-tech sector that funds the advertising in the three largest-circulation general newspapers (Yediot Ahanot, Israel Hayom and Haaretz) and two business newspapers (Calcalist and The Marker). They call it the locomotive because it accounts for more than 10% of employment and 15% of Israel’s GDP. Their employers and workers are at the forefront of the protest, both because of their social background and where they live, and because of their dependence on the outside world continuing to perceive the country as a democracy with an open economy and legal certainty.
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The fight is also being fought in the legal field. The Supreme Court has received six petitions to review the law, including those from opposition leader Yair Lapid and those from the Bar Association. Its President Esther Hayut and other judges of the court were forced to cut short their official visit to Germany, which began on Sunday, and return to Israel to interrogate them. It’s a paradox — the Supreme Court’s ability to overturn a rule affecting it — that experts are divided on.
The decree they will review passed Monday by 64 votes in favor (the entire coalition of Netanyahu’s Likud party with ultra-Orthodox and ultra-nationalists) and zero votes against as the other 56 MPs walked out of the plenary session shouting “Shame!” The law removes one of the legal filters from the supreme court that it held in a country without a constitution (it follows a basic set of laws developed over the years) and where parliament elects the prime minister. The Court has been in the crosshairs of the right, particularly the most extreme, for years.
Before, during and after the approval, there were protests in various cities, especially in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, but they were not massive. 32 demonstrators and 12 police officers were injured, none seriously. Three of the first cases were due to intentional hit-and-runs, the perpetrator of which is still in custody.
Demonstration in Jerusalem, after the parliamentary vote, this Monday. ILAN ROSENBERG (Portal)
In addition, dozens of artists hung eight-metre-tall banners at the side of Ayalón this morning, clenching their fists, delivering anti-reform messages, they claim in a statement. It is a busy highway in Tel Aviv that has been regularly blocked by younger demonstrators every Saturday since the mobilization began 30 weeks ago.
At the end of Monday, as thousands of people took to the streets to protest, Netanyahu called on the nation to defend the new law as “necessary to restore the balance between powers” so that the executive branch could “conduct policies in accordance with the will of the majority of the state’s citizens.” “It’s not the ‘end of democracy’, it’s the essence of democracy,” he stressed.
Lapid, his predecessor as prime minister and leader of the Yesh Atid party, accused him of “having become a puppet of messianic extremists” but urged the reservists, who had threatened thousands, to stop wearing the uniform so the Supreme Court could consider the petitions.
Another political opposition leader, Benny Gantz, who was Netanyahu’s defense minister and chief of staff, has tried to lift spirits with a military parable: “I’m a man who knows the fight, and I’m telling you today, ‘We may have lost a battle, but we will win the war.’
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