On International Women’s Day, dressed in red, they gathered in more than 50 locations from north to south Israel’s, as the organizers announced. The reform is progressing despite fierce protests from large sections of the population. According to media reports, the first phase could be approved in a fast-track procedure by April.
According to plans by the right-wing religious government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, parliament should in future be able to overturn decisions of the Supreme Court with a simple majority. In addition, politicians should be given more influence in the appointment of judges. The proposed law could also play into the hands of the head of government in a corruption process that has been ongoing against him for some time.
The demonstrations often featured women in long red coats and white bonnets disguising themselves as characters from the TV series The Handmaid’s Tale. The show is based on Margaret Atwood’s book The Handmaid’s Tale, first published in 1985, and is a dystopian story about a dictatorship in which women in particular are oppressed. The demonstrators are expressing their fear of Israel could go in such a political direction if the judiciary were weakened.
On Thursday is in whole Israel a “Day of Disorder” with numerous demonstrations and roadblocks planned. The demonstrators want to block access roads to Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv. The aim is to prevent Netanyahu from traveling to Italy. According to media reports, however, the Prime Minister wants to come to the airport in a helicopter to bypass the roadblocks.
