For the 26th consecutive week, demonstrations took place around Israel last night against the government’s planned changes to the legal system. The turnout last night was higher than in recent weeks, with the bill to curtail judicial review by limiting the ability of the courts to set aside decisions by central and local government and public officials on the grounds of extreme unreasonableness due to progress through the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee this week. Campaign organizers put the number of demonstrators in Tel Aviv at about 150,000, and at nearly 300,000 nationwide. The next step in the protest campaign is a demonstration at Ben Gurion Airport due to be held on Monday.
Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a discussion on restricting demonstrations in public places, following protests against government ministers and a rowdy demonstration outside the home of Minister of Justice Yariv Levin in Modi’in, during which demonstrators blocked the street and burned tires.
Two people were arrested in Tel Aviv last night, among a group of people who attempted to block the Ayalon Highway, the main traffic artery through the city, before the start of the demonstration. The speakers at the Tel Aviv protest were the mayor of Tel Aviv, Ron Huldai, Moran Zer Katzenstein, leader of the women’s protest movement, and Moshe Radman, a high-tech entrepreneur. Huldai focused on matters of religion and state, such as the granting of control over the extra-curricular programs in schools to MK Avi Maoz of the right-wing religious Noam party.
Speaking at a demonstration in Ra’anana, Leader of the Opposition Yair Lapid said: "In this round, they are trying to pass the reform in stages. The salami method. The reasonableness cause of action is needed because only in Israel are government ministers caught time and again appointing associates, rigging tenders, and in all kinds of corruption, without it even occurring to them to resign.
"If the reasonableness test is abolished, all the fences will be breached, all the limits will be crossed. We need the reasonableness test because we have an unreasonable government. We need it because the courts are the last line of defense for Israeli democracy."
Also up for discussion in the ministerial legislation committee this week is the proposal by Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir that he should be given the power, together with the attorney general or the state attorney, or their deputies, to approve administrative detention for up to six months at a time for people deemed to be a danger to the public, and to impose other restrictions on them. Similar provisions already exist in Judea and Samaria. The measures are ostensibly being proposed in order to combat the wave of murders in Israel’s Arab community. The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara have expressed opposition to the proposal.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 2, 2023.
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