New protest in Israel for plan to reform the judicial system

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israelis protested for the 23rd week Saturday against plans by the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to overhaul the country’s judicial system.

The massive demonstrations began in January shortly after the government, made up of ultra-nationalist and ultra-Orthodox religious parties, came to power.

After gaining momentum and drawing large turnouts of sometimes more than 200,000 protesters, protest organizers say they will not budge until the government cancels its intended changes and not just postpones them.

The mobilizations have become a weekly opportunity to express themselves on current affairs in the country.

In the coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv, where tens of thousands took part in the largest protest, protesters displayed a giant banner reading “Citizen Type: Dead,” a reference to rising crime among Israel’s Arab communities.

Other protesters marched behind an effigy of Netanyahu in chains amid a sea of ​​blue-and-white Israeli flags.

The plan would weaken the judicial system and limit judicial oversight of laws and government decisions, which critics say poses a direct threat to civil rights and the rights of minorities and marginalized groups.

They also warn that the initiative will grant the government unlimited powers and will upset the country’s system of checks and balances.

The government says the plan seeks to curb what it describes as excessive interventionism by the Supreme Court and restore authority to elected legislators.