Massive Protests Rock Israel – Again

Antigovernment protestors storm the main Highway to Jerusalem

Massive protests are once again rocking the State of Israel, from north to south. In other words, it’s Tuesday.

People in Israel Tuesday morning barely had a chance to absorb their cups of coffee, or orange juice, before being overwhelmed by the images on the news shows of protestors blocking roads and highways in opposition to the judicial reform plans proposed by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And even if you didn’t look at the TV news, you would have walked straight into the bedlam once you left your home.

To sum up the havoc, the coastal highway just north of Tel Aviv was blocked by protestors who set up camping tents on the road and during morning rush hour. On the same highway, just south of Haifa, traffic was blocked by the protestors for some time. And later in the day opposition groups once again blocked the main terminal at Ben-Gurion International Airport as they did last week.

Buy why today? Why is this Tuesday different than all the rest – actually it’s not. It’s more of the same.

But late last night the government pushed through a bill in the Knesset on its first reading that the opposition tried very hard to block. It passed on a strictly party line vote and will now be sent back to the Justice Committee. Laws need three such readings before they can become law.

Benjamin Netanyahu made the tactical move to not move forward with the more controversial parts of his reform plan and only pushed through, for now, what is called the “Reasonableness” amendment to the Basic Law on the Courts.

Basically, the proposed “reasonableness” clause would place limits on when the courts can intervene and decide on whether a law passed by the Knesset should be allowed to stand. This is even so in cases when an independent group appeals a law based solely on its opposition to the policies the law sets and not whether it in any way violates the rights of Israeli citizens or other laws of government.

For example, when a few years back the Knesset voted to allow for the raising of speed limits on certain major highways from the previous maximum rate of 90 KPH (56 MPH) to 100 KPH (62 MPH) an independent organization petitioned the Supreme Court arguing the law should be overturned since it was not safe to raise the speed limit.

The Supreme Court, in the end, rejected the petition. But the fact that it even heard the case, rather than decline to do so on the grounds that it is not for the courts to review public policy, angered many who feel that it has taken too many powers upon itself. The new law would prohibit the courts from even hearing such petitions in the future.

This does not seem to most to be such an unreasonable change to the system. And the Knesset is not, at this time, considering the proposed new law that would grant it the power to override any Supreme Court ruling with an absolute majority vote of 61 out of the 120 members of the Knesset. The opposition charges this would irreparably harm Israel’s democracy. Perhaps this is why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chose to move forward first with just this “reasonableness” law.

But the opposition sees this as just the beginning.

Part of the reform plan includes a drastic alteration of the judicial selections committee which would give the sitting government a majority of its seats. Today, a majority of the committee is comprised of justices and representatives from Israel’s bar association.

It would also end judicial review in Israel. The plan includes a new law that would allow an absolute majority of 61 out of the 120 members of the Knesset to override any ruling by the Supreme Court that overturned a law.

It’s still too early to tell whether today will see more violent activities than at past protests.

Let’s hope that tomorrow when Israelis wake up they will still have a country.