Israel postpones, but does not suspend the criticized judicial reform

27.03.2023

Faced with popular rejection of the proposal, Israel’s Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir announced the postponement, but not the suspension of Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial judicial reform.

Netanyahu, who is being tried for corruption, and his allies in the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, are the promoters of the reform that, according to critics, “attempts once morest the rule of law.”

The reform planned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has generated wide national and international rejection. Tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated in front of the Israeli Parliament on March 27 as workers launched a nationwide strike on Monday in a dramatic escalation of the mass protest movement aimed at halting the prime minister’s plan. Benjamin Netanyahu to reform the judiciary.

He chaos paralyzed much of the countryand threatened to cripple the economy. Flights from the main international airport were delayed, large chain shopping malls and universities closed their doors, and Israel’s largest union called on its 800,000 members to stop working in healthcare, transportation, banking and other sectors.

Israel paralyzed in protest of Netanyahu’s plans

Diplomats walked off their jobs at foreign missions, and local governments were expected to close preschools and schools. Local governments were also expected to close preschools and cut other services. The main union of doctors announced that its members would also go on strike.

The growing resistance to Netanyahu’s plan came hours following tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest the plan. Thousands of people took to the streets across the country in a spontaneous demonstration of anger following the prime minister’s decision to fire his defense minister following he called to stop the revision of the law.

Shouting “the country is on fire”, some protesters lit bonfires on Tel Aviv’s main highway, shutting down Tel Aviv’s main highway, shutting down the highway and many others across the country for hours.

Protesters rallied outside the Knesset, or Parliament, once more on Monday, turning the streets surrounding the building and the Supreme Court into a sea of ​​blue and white Israeli flags dotted with Rainbow Pride banners. Large demonstrations in Tel Aviv, Haifa and other cities drew thousands more.

“This is the last chance to stop this move towards a dictatorship,” said Matityahu Sperber, 68, who joined a group of people heading to the protest outside the Knesset.

It was unclear how Netanyahu would respond to the mounting pressure. Some members of his Likud party said they would support the prime minister if he heeded calls to halt the reform. The plan promoted by Netanyahu, who is being tried for corruption, and his allies in the most right-wing government in the history of Israel.

Israel in one of its worst internal crises. It has unleashed that they have galvanized almost all sectors of society, including the military, where reservists publicly say they will not serve a country veering toward autocracy.

jov (dpae, mirror)

Promised land, land of conflict

The triumph of hope

On May 14, 1948, David Ben Gurion proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel. The date of that anniversary now corresponds to April 19 according to the Hebrew calendar. Ben-Gurion referred to the history of the Jewish people, recalling: “he never lost hope” and “his prayer for return and freedom was never silenced.” The Jews had finally returned to their place of origin.

Promised land, land of conflict

In the UN

A diplomatic triumph: the flag of the new state was immediately raised in front of the United Nations building in New York. For Israelis, international recognition meant another step towards security and freedom.

Promised land, land of conflict

the blackest hour

The importance of the founding of the State of Israel is especially evident once morest the background of the Holocaust. During World War II, the Nazis murdered some 6 million Jews in concentration camps and gas chambers. The photo shows the prisoners of the Auschwitz concentration camp following their release.

Promised land, land of conflict

“Nakba” – the catastrophe

Palestinians remember the founding of the State of Israel with the term “nakba”: catastrophe. About 700,000 people had to leave their land to make way for the citizens of the new state. The establishment of the State of Israel thus marks the beginning of the conflict in the Middle East which, 70 years later, has not been overcome, despite numerous attempts at mediation.

Promised land, land of conflict

looking ahead

Highway Nr. 2 not only connects the cities of Tel Aviv and Netanya; it also reflects the desire for progress of the young State. The highway was inaugurated in 1950 by the Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, who applied a severe economic and modernization policy.

Promised land, land of conflict

The kibbutz, a paradise for children

Collective farms known as kibbutz spread throughout Israel, especially in the early years following the establishment of the Jewish state. Above all, secular Jews and socialist tendencies materialized their visions of community life there.

Promised land, land of conflict

six days of war

Tensions with Arab neighbors did not abate. In 1967 they led to the Six Day War, in which Israel defeated Egypt, Jordan and Syria and seized control of East Jerusalem and the West Bank. It was the opening chapter of a series of clashes and wars in the region.

Promised land, land of conflict

Conflicting settlements

Israel’s settlement policy continually fueled the conflict with the Palestinians. The Autonomous Authority accused Israel of making the future Palestinian state impossible, with its sustained policy of building settlements. The UN has also condemned these constructions, without Israel having amended the course.

Promised land, land of conflict

Anger, hate and stones

In 1987, the Palestinians rebelled once morest Israeli rule in the occupied territories. The protest started in Gaza City and quickly spread to East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The uprising lasted for years and ended with the signing of the Oslo agreement in 1993.

Promised land, land of conflict

Finally peace?

With the mediation of the then President of the United States, Bill Clinton, the Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, and the head of the PLO, Jasser Arafat, they launched peace talks in 1993 that led to the Oslo Agreement. In it, both parties officially recognized the other. Rabin’s assassination, carried out two years later by a young Israeli radical, undid the agreement.

Promised land, land of conflict

Close up in the Knesset

The Holocaust marks German-Israeli relations to this day. In February 2000, the then Federal German President, Johannes Rau, delivered a speech to the Knesset, in German. It was a milestone that required overcoming both parties and one more step closer, of great symbolic weight.

Promised land, land of conflict

the israeli wall

Israel’s settlement policy hardened the front lines of the Middle East conflict. In 2002 construction began on a 107 kilometer long wall in the West Bank. The barrier largely contained the violence, but it did not solve the political problems.