In Israel, the parliamentary session is underway, in which the decisive vote on judicial reform is to take place. Previously, demonstrators blocked parliament. The government is unimpressed – even if the pressure is growing from all sides.
Already in the morning there were clashes between demonstrators and the police. Water cannons were used, the forces tried to prevent hundreds of demonstrators from blocking access to the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.
Among the demonstrators: a particularly large number of reservists. More than 11,000 of them have announced that they will no longer volunteer if the judicial reform is passed. This is a problem for Israel’s security, which includes fighter pilots and special forces members.
The reservists are considered the backbone of the Israeli army. And people like Yogev from the organization “Brothers in Arms” hope up to the last minute to prevent the judicial reform: “I refuse to leave here. I refuse to give up the field,” says Yogev. “We have been through a lot in our lives, we have served the state, we have crossed the border into enemy country and we have put our lives at risk. We do not give up and do everything that is not illegal or violent.”
Strikes in the high-tech sector
Pressure on the government is coming from practically all sides: large companies went on strike today – including in the high-tech sector, which is important for Israel. Universities are on strike and doctors have also gone on warning strikes.
The right-wing extremist government under Benjamin Netanyahu does not seem to be impressed so far. So far there is nothing to suggest that the decision will be called off or that a compromise can be sought. Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s Finance Minister of the Religious Zionism Party, told jubilant supporters in Tel Aviv yesterday that the government is moving ahead with the legislation. It is “the quintessence of democracy,” said Smotrich. “We are acting with certainty and with full belief that the corrections we want to make in the justice system are the right thing to do to bring about justice.”
The President is also biting on granite
Faced with words like these, President Yitzchak Herzog stepped in again and called on the government and opposition to show responsibility and find a compromise. But this attempt at mediation also failed.
The government’s goal is to weaken the Supreme Court, which politicians from the governing parties consider too influential in politics. Today’s vote in the Knesset is about taking away the court’s ability to reject cabinet and ministerial decisions as “inappropriate”.
Netanyahu, who had a pacemaker implanted over the weekend, arrived at the Knesset this morning. It can be taken as a good sign that he is meeting with Benny Gantz, one of the opposition leaders. He had previously addressed Netanyahu directly in a video message:
You are the Prime Minister and the responsibility rests on your shoulders. A return to the presidential negotiations, an agreement that does not damage democracy, and proceeding in all legislation related to the judicial system only by mutual consent, that is the right and proper way.
But everything is going according to plan, the law is to be voted on in the second reading in the early afternoon and then in the third and final reading in the evening – but a last-minute change of plan is still possible.