Tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv and other cities on Saturday to protest against the controversial reform plan for the judicial system, considered by its critics as an authoritarian drift.
These demonstrations, the 28e since the reform bill was unveiled in January, come a few days after the first reading approval by Parliament of a key measure of the reform carried by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, one of the most right-wing of the country’s history.
The clause voted on Tuesday aims to cancel the possibility for the judiciary to rule on “the reasonableness” of government decisions.
“This is a battle for the country, we want Israel to remain democratic, and dictatorial laws will not pass here,” said protester Nili Elezra, 54.
“Things will go wrong. People are already leaving, money is lost, investors are fleeing, the world doesn’t want to talk to us, no one is happy with what is happening here,” she said.
Faced with fierce opposition and growing international criticism, including from US President Joe Biden, Netanyahu in March ordered a “pause for dialogue”, but that fell through last month.
For Elad Ziv, the next few weeks promise to be crucial: “we have two and a half weeks before the end of the summer session of Parliament and we must block them”, declared this 45-year-old programmer.
Announced shortly after the inauguration of the government formed at the beginning of the year by Mr. Netanyahu with the support of far-right parties and ultra-Orthodox Jewish formations, the judicial reform aims in particular to reduce the prerogatives of the Supreme Court, which the executive judge politicized.
Critics of the reform believe that it risks opening the way to an anti-liberal or authoritarian drift.