Demonstrations Continue in Israel Even on a Shabbat Afternoon

Benjamin Netanyahu press conference – Haim Zach (GPO) May 2023

There were massive demonstrations against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as usual, on Saturday. But in what was an extraordinary move thousands of protestors marched into Jerusalem before Shabbat even ended. They braved the late afternoon sun during an ongoing heatwave in the country and images showed them marching into the city, filling all of the lanes of the main highway into town.

On Sunday morning, in another unusual move, the protestors went en masse to the Kotel Plaza in Jerusalem’s Old City where they held a prayer rally.

Meanwhile, Israelis walk up Sunday morning to hear the news that their prime minister was in the hospital. Benjamin Netanyahu had a pacemaker implanted overnight to treat a heart condition that was uncovered by a heart monitoring device. That device was implanted a week ago after he feinted on a hot day.

At the time Benjamin Netanyahu claimed to have been simply dehydrated and did not reveal the concern that he had a heart condition.

While Benjamin Netanyahu recovers from the procedure his Deputy Prime Minister, the Justice Minister Yariv Levin, is filling in for him. This is ironic since it is Levin’s judicial reform plans that are at the center of Israel’s ongoing political feud.

After the Kotel prayer session was completed the protestors continued on to the Knesset. There, the government is expected to push through what it call the “reasonableness” amendment to Israel’s 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.

The new law would also block the courts from interfering with actions made by government ministers based solely on their own beliefs of what is reckless, unethical, or incompletely considered, and not based on what the law says.

The government’s supporters assert this is necessary because it will “restore” democratic principles to Israel that the government maintains were lost. This, it says, is because the courts have taken on too many powers for themselves that were not enshrined in law, thereby usurping the democratic process and the will of the majority in political matters.

The opposition, however, charges that this would be just the first step in a process to end the system of judicial review in Israel. This, it says, will harm Israel’s democracy by taking away the power of the courts to serve as a check against government powers.