The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, decided this Sunday to dismiss his Government’s Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, after publicly requesting yesterday the interruption of the controversial judicial reform promoted by the Executive.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided today, Sunday March 26, to remove Defense Minister Yoav Gallant from his post,” a spokesman for the president announced in a concise statement that did not provide further details about this measure.
Gallant’s statements yesterday marked the first public expression by a senior executive, and Netanyahu’s party, against the advance of judicial reform, which has unleashed a strong protest movement in the country.
The objection to Gallant’s reform joins that of another powerful Likud lawmaker, former Parliament Speaker Yuli Edelstein, who has hinted that he will not support the reform if it is voted on next week. This means that the parliamentary majority to promote the project is reduced to 62 deputies in a Chamber (Knesset) of 120, just one more than the minimum majority of 61 seats necessary to pass laws.
However, according to the Israeli press, three other Likud members have backed Gallant’s call. These are the Minister of Agriculture, Avi Ditcher, and the deputies David Bitan and Eli Dalal, although they did not express whether they would vote for or against the reform. If at least two did not support it, this would leave the coalition without a majority to push through the measure, potentially plunging Israel into another government crisis and further instability.
The tension is very high due to the division generated by the judicial reform, key in the political agenda of the Israeli right and extreme right, and which is opposed by the liberal sector and other population groups in Israel, where social polarization is further aggravated .
A record 630,000 people took to the streets of Israel’s main cities to protest against the controversial judicial reform, in the twelfth consecutive Saturday of demonstrations, the same day that Defense Minister Yoav Gallant publicly called for the legislation to be paralyzed, the first member of government to do so.
The central demonstration in Tel Aviv brought together some 300,000 people; 65,000 people demonstrated in Haifa, 22,000 in Jerusalem and 20,000 in Beersheva; while there were protests in more than 120 different parts of the country, according to data from the Umbrella Movement of Resistance against the Dictatorship in Israel, which brings together various civic groups.
The Police detained at least 3 people in Tel Aviv when dozens of protesters blocked the Ayalon highway, one of the main arteries of the city, and brought out the water cannons to disperse the concentration.
