Israeli Judicial Reform: Crowds Confront Police as Major Law Passes

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By Paul Adams, Rafi Berg and Lawrence Peter BBC News, Jerusalem and London July 24, 2023

Updated 20 minutes ago

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Witness: Water cannons and arrests in the Jerusalem protests

Israeli police clashed with crowds of protesters at night after parliament adopted a highly controversial law to limit the powers of the Supreme Court.

The measure – part of a larger reform package – would prevent the court from overturning government actions it deems unreasonable.

Police in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv used water cannons to disperse protesters blocking highways.

Critics say the hard-right government’s reforms threaten Israeli democracy.

After months of mass street protests over judicial reform, the Knesset (parliament) vote on Monday was an important victory for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But the battle is not over yet. It may last for months.

A political watchdog group and centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid plan to petition the Supreme Court to overturn the new law.

Furthermore, the Histadrut trade union federation threatened a general strike and thousands of reservists, including Air Force pilots, pledged not to show up for duty if the law was allowed to stay.

For a country that prides itself on its ability to respond quickly to any kind of threat, the fact that Israel’s very security could be compromised is a real concern.

Netanyahu insisted that the law was necessary for the government to “implement the policy in accordance with the decision of the majority of the country’s citizens.”

But he said he was ready to resume talks with the opposition, until November, to reach a comprehensive agreement.

The planned reforms sparked some of the largest protests in Israel’s history. Police said at least 22 people were arrested on Monday.

Opponents fear that the changes could undermine the country’s democratic system, turning it into an authoritarian region.

They worry that the nationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties allied with Mr. Netanyahu will be able to shape politics with unchecked force.

But the government says the reforms are necessary to correct an imbalance of power that has led to the courts increasingly interfering in political decisions.

The so-called “reasonableness” bill was approved by 64 votes to zero, after the final vote was boycotted by the opposition.

The White House – a key ally of Israel – called it “unfortunate” that the law had been passed.

The vote builds on top of months of unrest, with Israel’s president warning political leaders on Monday that the country was “in a state of national emergency”.

Street protests outside the Knesset continued throughout Monday, with a cacophony of drums, whistles and air horns.

A protester lying in the street told the BBC he was defying “dictatorship”, adding that his grandfather was breaking codes in wartime against the Nazis in the UK’s famous Bletchley Park.

When asked how long he would stay, he said: “We will never surrender.”

Another, Reut Yifat Uziel, the daughter of a paratrooper who appeared in the famous Israeli photo of the capture of the Western Wall in the 1967 war, said she feared for the future of her children.

“Netanyahu hijacked the country, and I fear it will become a religious state,” she said.

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Reut Yifat Uziel said she feared for the future of her children

The protesters — tens of thousands of them marched 45 miles (70 kilometers) from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem last weekend — have set up camp in a park between the Knesset and the Supreme Court, located almost next to each other.

Netanyahu was in parliament for the vote hours after he was released from the hospital following an unscheduled pacemaker operation on Saturday.

The controversial reforms polarized Israel, causing one of the most serious domestic crises in the country’s history.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets every week since the beginning of the year to protest what they say is an assault on democracy.

Former heads of Israel’s security services, chief judges, and prominent legal and business figures have been vocal against the government’s reforms.

The measures were also criticized by US President Joe Biden, who in his most outspoken statement yet called for delaying “divisive” reforms.

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