A ninth week of protests against the government’s changes to Israel’s judicial system saw over 200,000 demonstrators turn out in Tel Aviv last night, according to the protest organizers, and tens of thousands more around the country.
One of the speakers in Tel Aviv was former Likud minister Limor Livnat, who recalled the first Likud prime minister of Israel, Menachem Begin. "I want to tell Netanyahu and the real prime minister Yariv Levin: we are not afraid. Begin’s approach was to reinforce the judicial branch as a strong and responsible power to provide protection for the rights of minorities and pf the individual. The Herut movement which became the Likud was a liberal nationalist movement. The nationalist liberal right. Everyone remembers that Begin said, ‘There are judges in Jerusalem.’ He also wrote, ‘We have learned that a parliamentary majority can be a cover for the tyranny of the rulers. The people must therefore establish its rights versus the elected body.’"
Former minister of defense and minister of finance Avigdor Liberman spoke at a rally for the first time, in Ashdod. "I’m here as a person of the right, as a settler, as someone born into a Beitar home, and as someone who believes in the legacy of Herzl and Jabotinsky," Liberman said. "I have been in the political arena for many years, and I don’t remember a government ever simply causing chaos in the country within a couple of months and making all the citizens afraid. People are afraid of civil war, and are anxious about the security situation, about their personal security, and about the economic situation.
"Within a month, the State of Israel will face a constitutional crisis such as it has never experienced. As soon as the coalition passes the laws on third reading, the key person will be the president," Liberman added. On Friday, demonstrators outside President Isaac Herzog’s private home in Tel Aviv called on him to voice clear opposition to the "coup".
In Tel Aviv, a few hundred protesters broke through a police barrier and attempted to block the Ayalon Highway. The police used water cannon to disperse them, and made arrests. Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, who came to the police operations center in Tel Aviv, said, "I have come here in order to implement my policy. I have no intention of apologizing to anarchists who seek to set the state of Tel Aviv ablaze."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 5, 2023.
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