Israel. Half a million people take to the streets against the Netanyahu government
Rights — di Luigi Mastrodonato
Protests continue in Israel against the Netanyahu government's judicial reform. The political crisis is unprecedented.
Israel. Half a million people take to the streets against the Netanyahu government
Protests continue in Israel against the Netanyahu government's judicial reform. The political crisis is unprecedented.
- Israel's judicial reform seeks to give more powers to the government and curtail those of the Supreme Court.
- The bill has been challenged by the UN, as well as by Israeli president Isaac Herzog.
- Last weekend's protests are the largest in the country's history.
Last weekend, Israel saw the largest protest demonstrations in the country's history. Half a million people took to the streets against the Netanyahu government and its judicial reform, which seeks to concentrate more powers in the hands of the executive and reduce the authority of the Supreme Court.
The protests have been ongoing throughout 2023 and risk triggering an unprecedented political crisis for Israel. New protests have already been called for the coming days.
The judicial reform
The judicial reform is one of the cornerstones of the new Netanyahu government's political programme, which took office at the end of 2022 and is considered the most right-wing executive in the country's history. Presented at the beginning of the new year, it has so far passed its first reading in the Knesset, Israel's unicameral parliament, and will need to clear further votes in the coming weeks.
With the new judicial reform, the Netanyahu government seeks to curtail the power of supreme court judges, in a country where parliament has only one chamber, there is no proper constitution, and the Supreme Court therefore plays a supervisory role over the government's actions. In particular, the text provides for an increase in the proportion of members directly appointed by the government on the committee responsible for nominating Supreme Court judges. Currently four out of nine are government-appointed — a minority — with the aim of reaching eight out of 11. The reform also calls for the abolition of the reasonableness clause, the power of veto that supreme court judges hold over executive legislation. Finally, it seeks to grant the unicameral parliament the power to override the Court's rulings, thereby giving members of parliament — and thus the majority that forms the government — the final say over the judges.
Hundreds of thousands of people have rallied in cities across Israel for a 10th week to protest plans by Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government to curb the powers of the Supreme Court ⤵️
The legislation under discussion risks tilting power excessively in favour of the executive, leaving it free to enact whatever it wishes without any form of counterbalance. Prime Minister Netanyahu is also on trial for fraud, corruption and abuse of power, on the grounds that during his previous term in office he allegedly passed laws ad hoc to benefit companies close to him. The fear is that the judicial reform may also serve as a kind of ad personam measure to help him evade a potential conviction. The reform has been condemned by the UN and by Israel's president, Isaac Herzog.
Israel takes to the streets
Since the start of 2023, thousands of people have been taking to the streets systematically to protest against the reform bill. Last weekend, the uprising reached a massive scale. With half a million people in the streets, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz described the demonstrations as the most widely attended in the country's history.
The protests affected virtually every urban centre, from the 200,000 demonstrators in Tel Aviv to the 50,000 in Haifa, as well as the 8,000 in Be'er Sheva, a stronghold of Netanyahu's Likud party. Addressing the crowd there was Yair Lapid, former prime minister and leader of the opposition party Yesh Atid. "A wave of terrorism is hitting us, our economy is collapsing, money is fleeing the country. Iran has just signed a new deal with Saudi Arabia. But the only thing this government cares about is crushing Israeli democracy," he declared.
There was no shortage of tense moments. Police stopped Haaretz journalist Uri Misgav outside his home over some of his tweets against Netanyahu. In Tel Aviv, meanwhile, police commander Amichai Eshed joined the demonstrators — he is the officer that National Security Minister Ben Gvir tried to remove from his post for not having taken a hard line against protesters in recent weeks. And to give a sense of just how broad-based the protests are, the tech world is among the protagonists: the ongoing political crisis threatens to deal a serious economic blow to the country, known as the startup nation. The judicial reform is therefore not viewed favourably by the business community. Meanwhile, new demonstrations across the country have been called for 16 March, a sign that the popular uprising is only just beginning.