Jerusalem
CNN
—
Tens of thousands of protesters blocked roads in cities across Israel in demonstrations Monday, a few hours before the Prime Minister’s government Benjamin Netanyahu introduced a controversial judicial overhaul bill.
Protesters in Jerusalem turned the streets around the Supreme Court and the Knesset into a sea of Israeli flags that organizers distributed before the event began.
Among the protesters were several dozen women wearing long red skirts and white headscarves, like the maids in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, along with drummers and trumpeters. and at least one juggler balancing an Israeli flagpole over his nose. .
The Jerusalem rally was clearly smaller than the rally at the same location a week earlier, but still appeared to have about 75,000 people in attendance an hour and a half after it was scheduled to begin, the crowd control expert said. East Ofer Grinboim Liron told CNN.
A CNN team there observed that protesters had begun to disperse at 4:30 p.m. local time (9:30 a.m. ET). The protest largely ended in the early evening local time in Jerusalem.
But soon, scenes of chaos arose inside the Knesset as the formal session of debating the bill to be read for the first time in parliament began.
Many opposition lawmakers from former Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party raised Israeli flags in the meeting room, some draped Israeli flags over their shoulders and shouted at government lawmaker Simcha Rothman as the debate began. Knesset security forces stripped the lawmakers’ flags and escorted some out of the meeting room.
The controversial judicial reform bill has so far provoked weeks of public outcry, President Isaac Herzog’s request for a delay in negotiations and rare interference in domestic politics by Israel by the President of the United States. Joe Biden.
Netanyahu’s coalition is seeking the most comprehensive overhaul of Israel’s legal system since the country’s founding. The most important changes will allow a simple majority in the Knesset to overturn Supreme Court decisions.
The reforms also seek to change the way judges are selected and remove independent legal advisers from government ministries, who have mandatory opinions.
US President Joe Biden has expressed concern about the reforms, saying: “What’s special about American democracy and Israeli democracy is that both are built on strong institutions, based on strong foundations. checks and balances, based on an independent judiciary. Building consensus for fundamental changes is really important to ensure that people support them so they can be sustained.”
On Sunday, Netanyahu defended judicial reform.
“Israel is a democracy and will remain a democracy, with majority rule and appropriate safeguards for civil liberties,” he said.
“All democracies should respect the will of other free peoples, just as we respect their democratic decisions.
“There has been a lot of reckless and dangerous outspokenness, including calls for bloodshed in the streets and calls for a civil war. It won’t happen. There will be no civil war,” added the Prime Minister.
