There is no let up in the protest against the government’s judicial reforms despite the deferment of the legislation and the talks between the coalition and the opposition under the auspices of President Isaac Herzog. Demonstrators were on Israel’s streets last night for the thirteenth successive week. In Tel Aviv, according to various estimates, the demonstrators numbered between 165,000 and 230,000. Tens of thousands attended rallies in Jerusalem, Haifa and other cities.
In Haifa, the police arrested one person after he allegedly attacked a policeman who sought to prevent him from bringing a Palestinian flag into the area cordoned off for the rally. The police said that demonstrators would be prevented from carrying Palestinian flags for fear of public disturbances. In Tel Aviv, police apprehended three youths in the Sarona area near the demonstration who were carrying pepper spray and potential weapons. The police have also opened an investigation into the spraying of the slogan "Kahane Lives" on the wall of a gay center in Sarona, referring to ultra-nationalist politician Meir Kahane who was assassinated in New York in 1990.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cousin Prof. Nathan Netanyahu, a computer scientist at Bar-Ilan University, spoke at the Tel Aviv rally. "As a supporter of the right, for most of my life I have voted Likud, a liberal nationalist party, in the hope that a right-wing government would be formed under its leadership," Prof. Netanyahu said. "I decided to speak this evening in the face of the danger of a legal revolution that has nothing whatever in common with liberal nationalist ideology, and for the sake of the legacy of my mother, the late Shoshana Netanyahu, who served as a Supreme Court judge, and who stood for the independence of the court and the paramount importance of appointing judges in a professional, objective, and balanced manner."
Addressing the prime minister, Prof. Netanyahu said, "Why are you exposing Israel’s economy to huge damage, of which hundreds of top economists in Israel and overseas have warned? Why are you damaging Israel’s international standing and endangering our ties with our allies, and, perhaps most important of all, you, who are charged with maintaining the security of Israel, why are you dealing a mortal blow to the motivation and fitness of the best of the IDF’s officers and troops, and to the national and social resilience of the State of Israel, about which past and present heads of the defense establishment are warning?
"If under the cover of the ‘delay’ you advance this destructive legislation, which is mostly motivated by personal and political interests, you will be remembered in eternal disgrace as the one who destroyed democracy in the country. Please, return to your roots, return to your heritage! Put away this bad legislation immediately, and act with sincerity and broad agreement to establish a constitution for Israel!"
Among other speakers at the Tel Aviv rally were former head of Military Intelligence Amos Malka, constitutional law expert Adv. Dafna Holz-Lechner, and Adv. Rina Ayalin-Gorelik, executive director of the Association of Ethiopian Jews.
In Jerusalem, the speakers included author David Grossman, and the father of sixteen year-old Shira Banki, who was stabbed and killed in the Gay Pride march in Jerusalem in 2015.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on April 2, 2023.
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