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JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came under mounting pressure on Monday to halt his government’s efforts to transform Israel’s court system as the national backlash against the plan threatened to plunge the country into chaos.
Israeli universities, unions and hospitals announced a general strike, and the international airport began freezing outbound flights. Local council leaders began gathering outside the prime minister’s residence to begin what they said was a hunger strike.
As calls for Netanyahu’s resignation came from across government, business and the opposition, including Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Netanyahu’s longtime lawyer, local media reported that he would make a public statement Monday morning.
Netanyahu fires defense minister who called for judicial review to be halted
The announcement was postponed after sources in his party reported that Netanyahu was ready to bow to pressure. One of his most far-right allies, Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, tweeted a warning to the Prime Minister against “succumbing to anarchy”.
The unfolding chaos came the morning after Netanyahu sacked his defense minister, the first member of his cabinet to break with the coalition and call for a halt to judicial legislation. The nighttime sacking shook an already turmoiled country and escalated backlash to unbearable levels.
Within minutes, protesters took to the streets across the country, vowing to escalate demonstrations and public strikes until legislation efforts are frozen. Police clashed with protesters in several locations, using water cannon, cavalry and other unusually aggressive tactics to push thousands of protesters who blocked the Ayalon Highway and gathered outside Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence.
Israel’s consul-general in New York resigned in a tweet, and Herzog, the ceremonial president, asked the prime minister and the coalition to halt their legislative push with the nation on the brink of disaster.
“Security, the economy, society, everything is under threat,” Herzog said in a statement. “The eyes of all the people of Israel are on you.”
Netanyahu’s lawyer and close confidante Boaz Ben Zur told the prime minister that he would no longer represent him in his corruption trial, Israeli media reported Monday morning.
Hardliners in Netanyahu’s coalition – which includes ultra-Orthodox and ultra-nationalist settler parties – have continued to push legislation even as opposition has swollen. On Monday, hours before Netanyahu spoke, a parliamentary committee passed a key element of the plan, a bill that would give the coalition more control over judge selection.
“We don’t have to destroy the country,” opposition leader Yair Lapid said Monday morning at the start of his party meeting in the Knesset, where he called on Netanyahu to stop the law and start negotiations under the president’s supervision.
The coalition’s judiciary overhaul package would give them more power to select judges, including those to preside over Netanyahu’s corruption trial, in which he will be charged on three separate counts and potentially face jail time. Proponents say the changes – long sought by Israel’s burgeoning right wing – are necessary because the courts have become too powerful at the expense of elected officials and are hopelessly biased against the country’s left-wing elite.
Opponents say the moves are an attempt to remove one of the only controls on the coalition’s power, a shift that would allow it to make radical changes in society and tilt the country toward authoritarianism.
The plan, announced without warning shortly after Netanyahu’s new government took power in late December, forced the country to grapple with long-simmering questions about whether to prioritize its democratic or its Jewish character.