Published on: 01.08.2023 – 11:51
Several thousand demonstrators gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening for a protest march against Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. The latter denounce the presence of “extremists” and the danger they pose to democracy.
Several thousand Israelis demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening, January 7, against the new government of Benjamin Netanyahu, the most far-right in the country’s history.
“Out,” “Together Against Fascism and Apartheid,” “Democracy in Danger,” read placards waved by protesters who took to downtown streets, AFP journalists noted.
The winner of the November 1 parliamentary election, Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces charges of corruption, took over on December 29 at the helm of a government formed from far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties, from which certain tenors were appointed to key positions.
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“I came here today with thousands of people. It’s the first time, but (the movement) will exist because we have a problem, extremists use their power when they don’t represent the majority of the population,” said Omer, a protester who works in Tel Aviv in the high-tech sector .
The new ministerial team has already announced, among other things, that it will continue colonization in the Palestinian Territories, implement reforms that are of particular concern to the LGBT community, and reform the judicial system.
“We don’t want to see our democracy disappear”
A controversial reform unveiled to the press on Wednesday would introduce a so-called “exception clause” that would allow Parliament, by a simple majority, to overturn a Supreme Court decision.
“We don’t want our democracy to disappear and the Supreme Court to be destroyed. We want the government to be controlled,” Assaf, a lawyer who declined to give his last name, told AFP.
In addition to the Israeli flags or the colors of the rainbow, protesters in Tel Aviv also wore crossed-out T-shirts and banners reading “crime minister” in reference to the indictment of Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges in a number of cases .
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That slogan had been widely taken up during an anti-Netanyahu protest movement that has seen Israelis meet every week on Saturday nights since 2020 and for months to demand the resignation of whoever held office from 1996 to 1999 from 2009 to 2021.
The Likud leader (right) was ousted from power by a ragtag coalition in June 2021 but promised to return to business.
With AFP