For the 14th week, thousands of Israelis take to the streets against judicial reform
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Around 260,000 people protested in Tel Aviv on Saturday night against judicial reform against Benjamin Netanyahu’s government’s controversial justice reform. A demonstration which was held the day after an attack on the Tel Aviv seafront, and against a backdrop of increased violence in the Middle East in recent days.
A compact crowd of Israelis again took to the streets of Tel Aviv in Israel on the evening of Saturday, April 8, to protest against the justice reform wanted by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, which the demonstrators consider to be an attack on the democracy.
‘Save democracy’, ‘Freedom for all’ and ‘Netanyahu is leading us to war’ read placards at the protest, which took place the day after a beachfront bombing. of Tel-Aviv having left one dead and seven wounded.
According to the organizers, around 258,000 people protested in Tel Aviv against the judicial reform, in a wave of Israeli flags. Police did not give attendance figures.
Other more modest demonstrations took place in Kfar Saba in the center, Haifa in the north of the country as well as in Jerusalem.
Legislative “break”
Since the announcement of the reform project in early January, tens of thousands of Israelis have gathered every week to denounce the text and shout down the government formed in December by Benjamin Netanyahu.
The latter announced on March 27 a legislative “pause” to give a “chance […] dialogue”, after an intensification of the protest, the start of a general strike and the appearance of tensions within the majority.
However, the mobilization against this controversial justice reform remains strong.
For the government, the text aims, among other things, to rebalance powers by reducing the prerogatives of the Supreme Court, which the executive considers politicized, in favor of Parliament.
Critics of the reform believe, on the contrary, that it risks opening the way to an authoritarian drift.
Renewed tension in the Middle East
This new demonstration comes the day after a car attack in the Israeli metropolis that claimed the life of an Italian and injured seven people, according to the Israeli police.
Earlier Friday, two sœIsraeli-British sisters were killed in another attack in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
The violence has increased in recent days after the brutal irruption of Israeli forces in the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, in the middle of Ramadan, which has aroused numerous condemnations.
With AFP
