ROME.- “I never lived a such an impressive mobilization in Israel and obviously I am going to continue participating in the protests for the future of my children and because what is happening is a disaster… The country is going to hell”. Although she has lived in Israel for more than two decades, Miguel Glatstein50 years old, did not lose his Buenos Aires accent and, in a telephone dialogue with LA NACION from Tel Avivwhere he lives, does not hide his immense concern for what is happening at the moment.
Although yesterday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, pressured by massive marchesannounced that it was postponing a questioned judicial reformwhich has generated 12 weeks of unprecedented protests across the country, for Glatstein danger still lurks. And that is why not only did he continue protesting yesterday, after the prime minister’s announcement of a “pause”, but he will continue today and in the coming days because for him, the project promoted by the government, one of the most right-wing in the history of Israel, democracy is at stake.
Netanyahu seeks with judicial reform to increase the power of politicians over judges, diminish the role of the Supreme Court and, in addition, “to save himself from his various judicial problems.”
“If this project goes ahead, you know what will happen, it is not an Israeli invention. If the Supreme Court is finished, already there will be no freedom of the press, there will no longer be individual rightsthere will be no more human rights and the people will leave the country, the companies will leave and Israel will be destroyed”, predicted Glatstein, who graduated as a doctor from the UBA, was Israeli Army reservist medic until a few years ago and who today works in the pediatric emergency and toxicology department of the Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv.
“All the people are taking to the streets not to change the government, but to so they don’t destroy the Supreme Court, that it is independent and it is the only thing that can limit the power of politicians, because there is no Constitution, nor chamber of senators in this country”, he indicated. “Honestly, I don’t understand much about politics, but in this country the most respectable thing is the Supreme Court and its independenceand Netanyahu and his fascist coalition created hatred against her and against the judges with populist arguments that few believe,” he added.
“Most of the people in the demonstrations, never seen before, impressive, are war heroes, generals, airplane pilots, soldiers, reservists like me… All people who fought for the democracy of this country and who are not willing to fight for a fachist country. In these weeks people came out and showed the world that Israeli society is democratic and liberalGlatstein said.
“They say that we, the ones who are demonstrating, are against the elections, but it is a lie, that is pure populism, it is fascism, we We are against the attack on the Supreme Court, on the judges”, he denounced.
Precisely because of his enormous concern for the future of Israel, Glatstein has been going out to demonstrate for three months, with a drum and a flag, together with his Israeli wife, Merav, and their three boys, Tamar, 14; Itai, 13, and Ariel, 10.
“The school supports the boys going to demonstrate”he stressed, when he said that his eldest daughter, together with her dance partners, even did a dance in the street a few days ago.
“I don’t know what will happen, I’m not optimistic at all and that’s precisely why we are going to continue protesting”, advanced the Argentine doctor, who emphasized the fact that the strongest ministers of Netanyahu’s coalition never made the Army “because they have terrorist ideas and they were not accepted”, such as the Minister of Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who asked yesterday to repress the protesters, something that the police had not done until then.
Glatstein also said that it is not yet known what will happen to Defense Minister Yoav Galant, who was fired a few days ago by Netanyahu after warning that a rift would open up in the Army if the judicial reform project went ahead. but that, apparently, he has not yet received any official letter. “We will have to see what he says Joe Biden Netanyahu, who is under great pressure from his fachist right-wing coalition”, he opined.
His wife too, who is a biologist and works in research, is very worried. “If this progresses, we are going to have to leave the country. There will be no one left in a fanatical-religious country. The orthodox do not go to the Army, they do not pay taxes, let them stay with the fascists”, commented Glatstein.
Did you think about going back to Argentina? “I always think about it because I love Argentina, the country I left, but I didn’t leave… I go every year, I have multiple relationships, rugby friends and I’m also in contact with Garrahan doctors. But, apart from that, I bet that these demonstrations, which do not have to be punctured and that is why I am going to continue going, can change the course of things ”.