More massive protests in Israel against Netanyahu’s project of "democratize justice"

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets again on Saturday in Tel Aviv and other cities in Israel to protest against the project of the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to reform justicewhich the opposition considers an attempt by the prime minister to “turn the country into an autocracy, managing at will the appointment of judges, including those of the Supreme Court.”

Faced with this popular rejection, that this Saturday came to gather 450 thousand people in the streets and had to be repressed by the police with dozens of arrests, Netanyahu said this week that “there would be a legislative pause to give dialogue a chance,” but tempers flared again this weekend. by the resignation of Defense Minister Yoav Galant, who was one of the members of the right-wing government that was against the reform.

Although there were contacts between representatives of the majority and two of the main opposition parties, analysts are skeptical that there is any possibility of reaching an agreement.

The Netanyahu government defends that the reform “will serve to rebalance powers”, reducing prerogatives of the Supreme Court, which the Netanyahu Executive considers politicized and in favor of Parliament.

Opponents of Netanyahu consider that the president wants to keep control of the Justice, to extend his power by limiting democratic guarantees. The reform aims to give the government full control over the appointment of judges, including those of the Supreme Court.

The crisis occurs three months after the inauguration of Netanyahu’s nationalist-religious coalition, which contains deep differences on the issue within its own framework. The fact that Netanyahu is being tried for corruption charges, which he systematically denied, adds another controversial point, since there are those who consider that he wants to advance Justice precisely because of those processes underway against him.

For his part, the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, tries to mediate between the government and the opposition forces so that they reach a consensus compromise on the judicial issue, but so far these attempts have been unsuccessful.

So around 450 thousand citizens demonstrated this Saturday in different cities of the country, although the most popular were registered in Tel Aviv, where about twenty people were arrested, and in Haifa.

AFP/NA/HB