Several thousand demonstrators called on the government not to “surrender” in the reform negotiations.
Several thousand people took part in a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Thursday evening in support of the government’s judicial reforms called the “March for Freedom”. Many right-wing protesters carried signs reading “I am a second-class citizen” and called on the government not to have “surrendered” in the judicial reform negotiations.
Waving flags of Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, they marched from the Tel Aviv Museum of Art to Kaplan Street, where anti-government activists have been demonstrating regularly for the past three months. Prime Minister supporters tore down the fighter jet statue that had been erected in front of the museum to protest judicial reform.
The protest is the second of its kind since Netanyahu suspended the legislative process to pass the reform earlier this week under public pressure. The protesters chanted “The people demand judicial reform” and “Bibi, King of Israel” and used the prime minister’s nickname, while others held up signs that read “You are stealing the election”.
At the end of the rally, dozens of protesters blocked the Ayalon highway that runs through Tel Aviv.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has told police to treat pro-reform protesters demonstrating in Tel Aviv the same as anti-reform protesters. “Tonight’s protests are important for democracy, but I ask all protesters not to get involved in violence and, God forbid, not to hurt anyone, either protesters on the other side or journalists,” he said in a press release during he made disturbing calls about violence were shared on social networks in the afternoon.