JERUSALEM (London Post with AP) – Tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated outside parliament as workers swept across the dramatic Monday mass protests aimed at blocking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial reform plans. escalated into a nationwide strike.
The turmoil threatened to paralyze much of the country and cripple the economy. Departure flights from major international airports have been suspended. Major shopping chains and universities have closed, and Israel’s largest union has called on her 800,000 members to stop working in health care, transportation, banking and other sectors.
Diplomats were expected to lose their jobs at foreign legations and local governments to close kindergartens and cut other services. The largest medical union also announced that its members would go on strike.
Growing opposition to Netanyahu’s plan prompted tens of thousands of people across the country to take to the streets to voluntarily express their anger at the prime minister’s decision to dismiss the defense minister after calling for a moratorium on the overhaul. Shouting “The country is on fire”, they lit bonfires on Tel Aviv’s boulevards, blocking the boulevards and many other roads across the country for hours.
Protesters regrouped outside the Knesset, or parliament, on Monday to transform the building and the streets around the Supreme Court into a sea of blue and white Israeli flags, dotted with rainbow pride banners.Tel Aviv, Haifa Thousands more joined large demonstrations in , and other cities. The plan, promoted by Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, and his allies in Israel’s most right-wing government, plunged Israel into one of its worst internal crises. Reservists are increasingly publicly declaring that they do not intend to serve a country that deviates from authoritarianism, sparking ongoing protests that inflame nearly every sector of the military.
Palestinian citizens in Israel, however, are largely absent from the protests. Many say Israel’s democracy is undermined by military rule over its West Bank compatriots and the discrimination they face.
The turmoil has deepened longstanding and irreconcilable differences about Israel’s character that have torn it apart since its founding. Protesters claim they are fighting for the soul of the nation, and that the overhaul will eliminate Israel’s system of checks and balances and directly challenge its democratic ideals.
The government labeled them anarchists in order to overthrow their democratically elected leaders. Government officials say the plan would restore balance between the judicial and executive branches and curb what they see as interventionist courts with liberal sympathies.
At the center of the crisis is Netanyahu himself, Israel’s longest-serving leader, fighting charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes on three separate issues. I wonder how long they are willing to maintain their power. he denies wrongdoing. On Monday afternoon, Prime Minister Netanyahu made his first statement since sacking Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ahead of planned counter-protests in Jerusalem organized by ultranationalist Justice Reform supporters. , called for violence.
Opposition should also take place outside Congress. “They won’t steal our elections,” read a flyer for an event hosted by the Religious Zionist Party.
“I call on all protesters in Jerusalem, right and left, to act responsibly and avoid violence,” Netanyahu said on Twitter.
Sacking Netanyahu at a time of heightened security threats in the West Bank and elsewhere seemed like the final straw to many. Among them, apparently, is the umbrella of the country’s largest trade union Histadrut, which has disrupted months of protests leading up to the defense. dismissal of the minister.
