Protesters took to the streets en masse in protest against the Netanyahu government’s proposed changes to the judicial system, blocking roadways across occupied territories and intensifying a months-long campaign decrying the move, Aljazeera reported.
Thousands of protesters carrying flags and signs marched on a Tel Aviv thoroughfare on Thursday, stopping traffic in the middle of the workday. A small group burned tires on the street outside a seaport, briefly blocking trucks. Police forced demonstrators from the road in front of a conference center in central occupied lands.
The protests have escalated since the start of the year when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s hard-right government introduced new legislation that would limit the authority of the Supreme Court.
Military reservists have joined the protests and senior officials in the finance ministry warned this week of an economic backlash.
In occupied holy Quds, crowds gathered along the walls of the Old City from which they hung a huge replica of the regime’s declaration of independence.
Netanyahu in the meantime pushed ahead with the legislation, which includes bills to give the government decisive sway in electing judges and to limit the court’s power to strike down laws.
Earlier on Thursday, a law was ratified by a 61-to-47 final vote limiting the circumstances in which a prime minister can be removed, despite worries that it may be meant to shield the incumbent Netanyahu from any fallout from his corruption trials.
The Knesset approved the bill, under which prime ministers can only be deemed unfit and compelled to step aside if the Knesset or three-quarters of cabinet ministers declare them so on physical or psychological grounds.
The amended definition for the “incapacity” of the prime minister is among a number of legislative measures proposed by the religious-nationalist coalition that have tipped Israel into crisis, with the opposition arguing that judicial independence is in peril and the coalition claiming the proposals aim to push back against Supreme Court overreach and restore balance among branches of government.
MNA