Netanyahu (left) and Scholz, this Thursday in Berlin. Liesa Johannssen (Bloomberg)
Berlin had already shown concern about the direction Israel’s controversial judicial reform and deep political crisis are taking, but this Thursday Benjamin Netanyahu heard from Chancellor Olaf Scholz in person. During his visit to the German capital, Scholz called on the Israeli Prime Minister in a friendly but deeply critical manner to uphold Israel’s status as a liberal democracy and to endeavor to find a solution to the conflict. The federal government is following the crisis caused by the judicial restructuring project “very closely and with great concern”. “The independence of the judiciary is a great democratic good,” emphasized the Chancellor at the joint press conference.
Netanyahu’s shorter-than-expected journey began with a visit to the Holocaust memorial on track 17 at Grünewald train station, from where around 10,000 Jews were deported to concentration and extermination camps. “Germany will not forget its responsibility and will always live up to it,” said Scholz. During the visit, Netanyahu stressed the importance of his country’s defense capabilities. “We know that the calls for Israel’s annihilation have not stopped,” he observed. “One important lesson from the Holocaust is to counter such threats in time to prevent disasters.”
Parallel to the protests organized in Israel, several hundred people gathered in Berlin next to the Brandenburg Gate and in front of the Bundestag, very close to the Chancellery, where both heads of state and government met. Handcrafted banners calling for “saving Israeli democracy” were seen; others comparing Netanyahu to Viktor Orbán, the Prime Minister of Hungary, and others playing on the name “Prime Minister” in English (Prime Minister) and calling him “Crime Minister (Minister of Crime)”. The German capital is the epicenter of leftist Israelis living outside their country.
In Berlin, Netanyahu received another rebuke from Josef Schuster, head of the Jewish community in Germany: “I told him that his government is increasingly dividing Israeli society and jeopardizing trust in democratic Israel.” But he also emphasized: “The Jews in Germany and worldwide are firmly on Israel’s side and want to remain so.”
Scholz expressed his sympathy for the victims of the recent terrorist attacks in Israel and the West Bank, but also stressed his concern about a further escalation of the conflict in the Middle East. “We are shocked by this blind violence. This must be counteracted with rule-of-law coherence, but not with rampant vigilante justice,” said the Chancellor during the joint press conference. Germany, he emphasized, is calling on all parties not to allow the conflict to escalate any further, which also includes halting settlement construction.
Scholz called for the judicial reform to be discussed and negotiated further. “As friends of Israel, we want the last word on this issue not to have been spoken.”
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Germany and Israel have a special relationship, shaped by the Shoah, the mass murder of six million Jews by the Nazi dictatorship. Both nations forged strong diplomatic ties in the decades following World War II. The relationship was formally restored in 1965, although there had been a historic meeting between David Ben-Gurion and Konrad Adenauer in a New York hotel in 1960 that officially marked the beginning. Successive German governments have made Israel’s national security a foreign policy priority.
Alternative proposal by Herzog
Netanyahu arrived in Berlin late on Wednesday, well ahead of schedule. He postponed the trip in order to meet with members of his government in the afternoon in view of the address to the nation, in which President Isaac Herzog presented an alternative proposal to that of the executive, with the aim of overcoming the political crisis and “the abyss ” evade. “A full agreement is impossible, but at this crucial moment we must strive for a comprehensive agreement on legal issues. […]. Anyone who thinks civil war is a line we won’t cross has no idea,” warned Herzog, who has no executive functions but can arbitrate in political crises.
Netanyahu this Thursday reiterated his rejection of the presidential initiative, which he had already voiced after Herzog’s intervention. “It’s not a compromise proposal, it’s a partial proposal,” he explained in a video broadcast on his Telegram network channel. On the other hand, the leaders of five of the six opposition parties with a parliamentary presence appeared in Tel Aviv this Thursday to announce their acceptance of the President’s proposal.
In a joint press conference, Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid); Benny Gantz (National Unity); Avigdor Lieberman (Israel Beitenu); Merav Mijaeli (work); and Mansur Abbas (United Arab List) have made it clear that they disagree with some of the guidelines that Herzog presented as a basis for parliamentary dialogue, but see them as a way out of the crisis and division. “It’s not perfect, nor what we wanted, but it’s a fair compromise that allows us to live together,” Lapid said. “The alternative,” he added, “is serious damage to our economy and our national security, and an angry, confused, and disorganized society.” Along the same lines, Gantz has stressed that the proposal is “not ideal,” but “realistic ” may be. The alliance of Arab parties Hadash and Taal was the only one with opposition MPs not to speak. The Palestinian minority with Israeli citizenship (21% of the country’s population) generally remains on the sidelines of the protests.
The executive branch’s immediate rejection of the proposal (“its key elements simply perpetuate the status quo,” Netanyahu said ahead of his trip to Berlin) skimmed Thursday, the day of protests in various parts of the country that drew tens of thousands of protesters. Citizens, despite being summoned days before Herzog’s intervention. It is the third day of actions – such as marches, sit-ins, street blockades or riots – that complement the demonstrations, which take place every Saturday at the end of Shabbat for more than two months. With them, the opponents of the judicial reform want to raise the pulse of the government at a critical moment.
In Tel Aviv, several hundred managed to again block the important Ayalon highway for about an hour while chanting “Democracy!”, “We are not afraid!” and “Our state is not Netanyahu’s.” They were mostly young or middle-aged and carried numerous Israeli flags and some rainbow colors. One group was dressed in pink to ask for a future of that color for Israel.
“The speed with which the government rejected the President’s proposal shows that it is even more important that we are here today,” one of the protesters, Merav Klein, said in the middle of the street. “You have no will to speak. [El presidente] He said he brought something first to start with, but it was clear that they wanted to transform Israel from a democracy to a dictatorship […]. They call us traitors, but I went into the army and my son is there now [haciendo el servicio militar obligatorio]”, he added.
Klein, 50, self-described as “Mizrahi and proud leftist” to emphasize that not all critics of the reform are Ashkenazim (Jews from Central and Eastern Europe who are more connected to the secular elite that built the country) . Mizrahi Jews, who hail from North Africa and the Middle East, are traditionally associated with Netanyahu’s Likud party in Israel. It is about a latent socio-political divide in the country that this crisis has brought to light.
Simona, 28, assures that she has not stopped at any of the demonstrations, so she sees no reason to put the brakes on now. “They don’t listen to us when we’re just asking about things. We’re transparent to them,” he says. Hold a national flag. Around him, many protesters carry stickers with slogans such as: “This is a war for our home”, “Democracy or rebellion”, “We believe in the Declaration of Independence” or “Liar, son of a liar”. Netanyahu was mentioned by his current finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, in a private conversation that was leaked during last November’s election campaign.
Others downplayed the President’s initiative. “It’s a smokescreen,” said Oded, 45. “There’s a group in government that’s aggressive and radical and hates minorities. I at least hope that out of all this balagan (mess) a better country will emerge.
The police officers, who were on either side of the protesters, advanced on foot and mounted on horses until they pushed them onto the exit road and forced them to evacuate the road. In the process, one protester was arrested and the crowd began chanting, “Shame!” Agents arrested 11 people across the country on Thursday.
Israeli army kills four Palestinians in new raid in West Bank
As judicial reform draws attention to Israel, the violence does not abate. Four Palestinians died Thursday in a raid in the city of Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank, in which Israeli security forces last month carried out their deadliest raid since 2005, killing 11 people. At least two of those killed this Thursday were militia officers and another a teenager. In addition, a short video broadcast by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz shows how apparently one of the Israeli troops, dressed incognito, shot an unarmed Palestinian lying on the ground at close range in the head.
More than 80 Palestinians and 13 Israelis (plus one Ukrainian who was at the scene of an attack) have died so far this year in an escalation in tensions in the region that has reached an unprecedented number since the Second Intifada (2000-2005). left victims).
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