2023-06-11 06:15:32
Thousands participated The Israelis Saturday evening, in Tel Aviv and other cities, for the twenty-third consecutive week, demonstrations against Judicial reform plan which the government of Benjamin Netanyahu wants to implement.
Crowds gathered in central Tel Aviv and the cities of Haifa and Rehovot. “We are being held hostage,” said Michal Gatt, 47, who works in the high-tech sector in Tel Aviv. “Our country, its economy and human rights are being confiscated by extremists,” she lamented.
“We have been here for 23 weeks with our children, in the rain and sometimes in the heat. It is very important for the Israeli people to preserve democracy in Israel,” she told AFP.
A number of demonstrators also raised banners criticizing the government’s inaction in facing the wave of crime currently affecting the Arab minority.
One of the banners read, “We will not let Ben Gvir escape killing in Arab society,” referring to the far-right Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir.
The Israeli police had announced the killing of five Israeli Arabs on Thursday at a car wash in the Arab town of Yafa Nazareth, and the incident may be related to a gang war.
Since the beginning of the year, some 100 people have been killed in crime-related violence among Israel’s Arab minority, according to a count conducted by Arab human rights NGOs.
>> Read also: What are the causes of the controversy surrounding judicial reforms in Israel, and what are their repercussions?
With regard to judicial reform, the government, which is one of the most right-wing in the history of Israel, believes that it aims especially to restore the balance of power by strengthening the powers of Parliament at the expense of the Supreme Court, which it considers politicized.
But critics of the reform believe it threatens to open the way for authoritarian drift.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog has been negotiating for a month with representatives of the government and the opposition in order to reach a compromise on the terms of judicial reform.
France 24/AFP
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