In Israel, protests are taking place for the eleventh week in a row against a reform of the judiciary, which is intended, among other things, to limit the powers of the Supreme Court. Estimates indicate that over 260,000 people took to the streets in Tel Aviv and other cities in the country on Saturday.
The Israeli firm Crowd Solutions estimates that around 175,000 demonstrators gathered at a major rally in Tel Aviv, The Times of Israel reported. Another 85,000 people showed up in other cities across the country, and about 10,000 gathered outside the president’s residence in Jerusalem.
Protest in Tel Aviv PAP/EPA/ABIR SULTAN
Judicial reform project
The judiciary reform project increasing government control over the Supreme Court election process, as well as the ability to overrule Supreme Court rulings by a majority of 61 votes in the 120-member Knesset.
Netanyahu’s right-wing government wants to push through the controversial reform under a fast-track procedure by the end of the month. For more than two months, therefore, in Israel there are violent protests.
President Yitzhak Hercog published a plan on Wednesday, which he announced would simultaneously strengthen the parliament and government and ensure an independent judiciary.
Netanyahu turned down the offer before leaving for Thursday Germanand in Berlin he opposed claims of seeking to weaken the judiciary. “Israel is a liberal democracy and will remain so,” he assured. He argued that “an independent judiciary is not an omnipotent judiciary”.
Israelis protest against judicial reformPAP/EPA/ABIR SULTAN
– We will do everything necessary to correct this imbalance. (…) We will not deviate an inch from this, Netanyahu said. He described the president’s compromise proposal as “unbalanced.”
Main photo source: PAP/EPA/ABIR SULTAN