In Israel, large-scale demonstrations have resumed asking to block the approval in parliament of the justice reform, proposed by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and already much contested in recent months. In fact, the reform would reduce the ability of the Supreme Court to oppose government decisions: for this reason it is considered by those who oppose it as a potential threat to Israeli democracy, because it would eliminate an important counterweight to the power of the incumbent government.
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The protests had begun at the beginning of the year and continued until March, when Netanyahu temporarily withdrew the proposal, saying he wanted to build a broader consensus around it. In recent weeks, the government had presented a more limited reform, removing some of the most contested passages, including the part which provided that the parliament could annul the sentences of the Court and the one which gave much power to government parties over the appointment of judges. However, the central point remained, the one in which the removal of the “reasonableness clause” is foreseen, i.e. the possibility of the Supreme Court to intervene on the administrative measures approved by the government and abolish them if it deems them somehow “unreasonable”.
On July 11, the new reform proposal passed the first of three required votes in parliament. On Monday, the text arrived in the Justice Commission, where no amendments were presented to change it. Now he will have to pass two more votes in parliament, set for next week, but in the meantime critics of the reform have organized new protests, which began today, Tuesday 18 July.
Today’s protests affected train stations for the first time. In addition, there have been delays on many roads, partially blocked by protesters. Some of the most intense demonstrations were in Tel Aviv, the main economic center of the country: army reservists, immediately among the most active participants in the demonstrations, blocked an important military base, and a large crowd gathered outside the headquarters of Israel’s main trade union, the Histadrut, calling on the organization to call a general strike. The strikes in March had played a key role in the withdrawal of the first proposal.