After the dismissal of Defense Minister Joav Galant in Israel, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Tel Aviv and other cities in the country on Monday night. The participants in the rally in Tel Aviv blocked, among other things, one of the city’s main traffic arteries, as reported by an AFP reporter.
With their protest, they reacted to the dismissal of Galant, who had previously backed away from the ultra-right governing coalition’s controversial plan to restructure the judiciary and called for the legislative process to be interrupted. As a result, Galant, a party friend of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was dismissed on Sunday evening.
Israeli consul-general in New York resigns after Galant’s sacking
The demonstrators set fire to a sofa, and wood burned in various places. Tires were also set on fire, police said. The demonstrators waved the Israeli flag and demanded Netanyahu’s resignation, chanting “Bibi go away!”
The Israeli Consul General in New York, Asaf Zamir, resigned in protest at Galant’s dismissal. The dismissal was “a dangerous decision,” Zamir said on Twitter. The process has made him realize that he “can no longer represent this government”.
Global concern about judicial reform
There were also protests in other Israeli cities during the night. Demonstrators gathered in front of Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem, as well as in the northern city of Haifa and in Beer Sheva in the south of the country.
The plans of the ultra-right governing coalition to restructure the judiciary in Israel have been the cause of mass protests for weeks. They aim to limit the powers of the judiciary and the Supreme Court and strengthen the powers of Parliament and the Prime Minister.
Netanyahu, who is pending a corruption trial, says the reform is necessary to restore balance in the separation of powers. Critics, on the other hand, fear that the separation of powers will be abolished and democracy in Israel will be undermined.
