For a few minutes this Monday morning it seemed that the pressure from the street against the judicial reform that gives more power to the Executive had permeated the highest spheres of politics. Israel’s Prime Minister Beniamín Netanyahu was scheduled to announce the suspension of the controversial rule at 10:30 a.m. local time. But when the time comes, the government leader has postponed the television appearance due to the opposition of an ally of his far-right coalition, as announced by Channel 12. Shortly before, the Minister of National Security, Ben Gvir, had tweeted that the The government had to continue with the measure, which has unleashed a massive protest movement, and which could not “succumb to anarchy.”
Earlier in the day, it was Israeli President Isaac Herzoc who called for the opposite, the same request that got Defense Minister Yoav Gallant fired on Sunday. The gesture sparked a protest of more than half a million people that lit the streets overnight. “For the sake of the unity of the people of Israel, for the sake of accountability, I ask you to immediately stop the legislative process,” Herzog tweeted.
The warning from the head of state, who is supposed to be above politics and whose role is largely ceremonial, underscored the alarm caused by the divisions opened by the proposals. Shortly after the presidential announcement,
The General Union of Workers of Israel, the largest union in the country, threatened a general strike if the government does not stop the reform, the stoppage would spread to countless sectors of the economy and to the main hospitals in the country. As a result of the protests, Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport, the country’s largest, suspended flight departures today.
The judicial reform, which would give the executive control over the appointment of Supreme Court judges and allow the government to overturn court rulings on the basis of a simple parliamentary majority, has sparked mass protests for weeks.
Gallant’s statements gave a glimpse of a debate within the Executive that until now had not surfaced. That of the former minister was the first public expression by a senior official of Netanyahu’s party against the measure that has sparked a strong protest movement.
Three months after he took power as one of the most right-wing governments in the country’s history, Gallant’s ouster has plunged Netanyahu’s national-religious coalition into crisis. All of this comes amid a deepening security emergency in the occupied West Bank, where dozens of deaths have been recorded, mostly Palestinians from Israeli raids.
