A massive demonstration in support of judicial reform took place on Monday evening in Jerusalem at the same time that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a pause in the legislative process to allow negotiations.
More than 100,000 people gathered in the capital, close to the Knesset and Supreme Court, police sources said, in a show of solidarity following months of left-wing-led protests against the coalition’s reform program.
The rally was held under the banner of “They will not steal our elections,” in reference to the November vote that saw Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc secure a 64-seat majority in the 120-member Knesset.
A large demonstration against the judicial reform was held earlier in the afternoon outside the Knesset on a day that saw people take to the streets in cities across the country and a general strike that shut down parts of the economy, including the grounding of flights at Ben-Gurion Airport.
Government ministers and lawmakers from the coalition took to the stage during the pro-reform rally to call for the legislation to be passed. They included MK Simcha Rothman of the Religious Zionism Party, the chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee; Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the leader of the Religious Zionism Party; and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the head of the Otzma Yehudit Party.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi of Likud told the demonstrators that the reform initiative would continue.
“We are not stopping in any way, shape or form. We will not surrender to anarchists…. the reform will move forward,” Karhi said.
There was concern that clashes would take place between demonstrators from the rival camps after the La Familia group announced that it was attending the Jerusalem rally. La Familia is a group of fans of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer club with a history of violence.
Netanyahu called for calm ahead of the dueling protests near the Knesset.
“I call on all the demonstrators in Jerusalem, on the right and the left, to behave responsibly and not to act violently. We are brothers,” the premier posted to his Twitter account.
Speaking at the main rally against the judicial overhaul in Tel Aviv, Historian Yuval Noah Harari says civil servants and military forces must obey the courts and not the government, should Israel end up in a constitutional crisis.
Addressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Harari says: “We know you are responsible for all that is happening. You are not an emissary. You are definitely not an angel. After 2,000 years, we still remember pharaoh. And we will remember you. There’ll be no streets, squares or airports named after you. But we will tell the story of the man who tried to enslave us and failed.”
“You are surrounded by people with no backbone. But we have backbones…We will not be slaves. Next year we will be free people,” he adds.
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