Twelve weeks after its presentation and massive demonstrations, judicial reform in Israel claimed its first political victim this Sunday with the dismissal of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The announcement statement reads simply, “The Prime Minister decided this afternoon to sack Secretary of Defense Yoav Gallant.” The reason, however, is no secret. After weeks of privately conveying to Netanyahu his concerns about the consequences for Israel’s security of the political and social divisions created by the reform (including the refusal of hundreds of army reservists to carry out certain tasks), Gallant left the country on Saturday to publicly report asking for its decommissioning. The controversial change in the law would weaken the separation of powers in favor of the executive. His first law was already passed on Thursday. The announcement brought tens of thousands of people to the streets of Tel Aviv, the epicenter of the protest, and where scores of passing cars honked their horns while shouts of “democracy” and “To Ayalón, to Ayalón” were heard, the vital highways that protesters usually cut off . There were also protests in the cities of Jerusalem, Haifa, Beer Sheva and Petah Tikva.
Shortly after the dismissal, Netanyahu and Gallant simultaneously issued two very short tweets. The first wrote: “We must all take a strong stand against conscientious objection [en el ejército]“. The second: “The security of the State of Israel has been and always will be my vital mission,” in a message topped by the national flag. Former Prime Minister and current opposition leader Yair Lapid also responded to the announcement on Twitter: “Netanyahu can stop Gallant, but he cannot stop the reality and the people of Israel who are facing the follies of this coalition.”
At the protest this Sunday evening in Tel Aviv, in addition to the usual “democracy or rebellion” or “shame”, one of the most heard chants was “Bibi (as Netanyahu is popularly known), home”. Most of the protesters were young or middle-aged.
Emmanuel, 52, found out about the transfer while watching TV at his home in Binyamina, six miles north of Tel Aviv. “And I couldn’t resist coming,” he commented in the t-shirt, supporting the reservists. He says he has been there for 20 years and accuses the Netanyahu government of “impudence”. Gallant, he noted, “put the good of Israel” above Netanyahu’s “ego and show of force.” “And tomorrow, when the head of Shin Bet (security) arrives and tells you the same thing, what will you do? Fire him too?” Dozens of meters away, Hadar thinks it’s more important to go out and demonstrate after the release than it was 24 hours ago. “It has to stay that way until the government falls,” he told the crowd. The 21-year-old Tel Aviv resident admitted to being “scared” by the situation and believes Gallant was the first in the government to realize that “they weren’t elected for this” as far as the reform is concerned.
As tens of thousands of Israelis (at least 200,000 in Tel Aviv alone) demonstrated this Saturday in one of the largest anti-reform protests, Gallant – a respected general in the reserve who had heard numerous complaints within the army – appeared on television to emphasize that he witnessing the “erosion” of the source of the “strength” of the State of Israel these days, whose security he said is its “vital mission”. “The growing divisions in our society are penetrating into the armed forces and security forces, posing a clear, immediate and palpable threat to the security of the state. I won’t allow that,” he said.
Demonstration in Tel Aviv this Sunday evening Antonio Pita
Subscribe to EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without limits.
subscribe to
“The extent to which feelings of anger, disappointment and fear have reached has never been seen before,” lamented the minister, recalling that the armed forces were “not outside the political and social crisis triggered by the proposed reform before” were to weaken the Supreme Court, change the method of electing its judges and allow Parliament to re-approve laws previously overturned by the judges, which have this power in the style of the Constitutional Court in Spain. Israel has no constitution, but it is governed by a basic set of laws, and the Supreme Court has the power to interpret whether a regular law violates them.
Gallant’s public standoff was not only the first within the executive branch and the most important within the Likud, Netanyahu’s right-wing party, but also the most anticipated. The former minister supports the concept of the law and made it clear in his speech that he still sees himself as right-wing. But it is also the window where his former colleagues in the army express their grievances and concerns, and the window that receives the most data on the extent of the “rebellion” in the Bundeswehr. It’s not only the growing number of reservists, but also the soldiers on duty who are determined to obey few orders if the reform is implemented, local media reports.
Liaison with the military
Yoav Gallant, at Ben Gurion Airport on March 9 AMIR COHEN (Portal)
This connection to the military sets him apart from party colleagues like Yariv Levin (Judiciary), who is leading the reform and has been obsessed with the composition of the court since the beginning of his political career. Or the Ministers of Religious Zionism and Jewish Power, the far-right coalition partners who have had their sights set on the Supreme Court for years.
The local press speculated Sunday before the announcement of the dismissal that Avi Dijter, who heads the Agriculture and Rural Development portfolio, would fill the position. Dijter came out later in the day to express his support for the reform. The targeting of Netanyahu suggests that the promise of the portfolio (juicy and respected in Israel) may be behind the change in position the media ascribed to him a day earlier. After Gallant’s speech, he was inducted into the rebel bloc as one of the few members of the executive branch — composed of the Likud and the ultranationalist parties Religious Zionism and Jewish Power, and the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism — who had resigned to the scenes of his disagreement with the manner and way the legislative package was handled. Only two Likud MPs, who had already made their opposition clear, backed Gallant. Yuli Edelstein, who thanked him for “taking the path” he’s been leading for weeks and being sanctioned by the party for missing two votes. And David Bitán, who on Twitter called for “immediate negotiations” to reach “broad agreements” and expressed his “support for the words” of his “friend, the defense secretary”.
Protesters in Tel Aviv this Sunday NIR ELIAS (Portal)
Follow all international information on Facebook and Twitteror in our weekly newsletter.