The government’s plan to push through several simultaneous reforms to the judicial system has plunged Israel into an unprecedented crisis and deepened divisions in an already polarized country.
The protesters, waving the blue and white national flag and blowing bugles, blocked the main thoroughfare outside Ben Gurion International Airport and rallied inside the arrivals hall. Several flights were delayed, according to the airport’s website.
On several occasions, protesters clashed with police, who dispatched officers on horseback to the scene. Police reported that they arrested at least 37 people for disorderly conduct.
“We are against the dictatorship,” said Rami Matan, one of the protesters. “We are against the rules that the deplorable Netanyahu government” wants to impose, he added.
Netanyahu and his ultra-nationalist and ultra-Orthodox allies insist on plans for controversial changes to the judicial system after the failure to reach an agreement with the opposition. The proposed reform has received criticism even from the administration of US President Joe Biden and from the American Jewish community.
Simcha Rotman, a Netanyahu ally who as head of Parliament’s Constitution, Law and Justice committee has spearheaded the reform, said Monday that he will present a proposal this week to strip the Supreme Court of its authority to overturn government decisions it deems “unreasonable”.
The “reasonableness” standard was recently used by the Supreme Court to block the appointment of a Netanyahu ally as interior minister because he was found guilty of bribery when he held office in the 1990s and because he was charged with tax evasion in 2021.
Critics say removing that standard would allow the government to make arbitrary decisions and give it too much power.
Last week, more than 100 Israeli air force reservists signed a letter saying they will refuse to serve if the government insists on its plan.
Netanyahu and his allies rose to power in the November elections, the fifth election in less than four years. Every recent election has basically been seen as a referendum on whether Netanyahu should be prime minister when he is in the middle of a corruption trial.
FUENTE: Associated Press
