Hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets in several cities across the country on Saturday to demonstrate against plans by the far-right government to limit the power of the Supreme Court. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz speaks of the “most powerful act of resistance ever” in Israeli democracy. The government is expected to pass the law next week.
Demonstrations against the planned reforms have been going on in Israel for almost thirty weeks, but never before have so many people taken to the streets at the same time. One protest march had started in Tel Aviv on Tuesday with hundreds of demonstrators and grew in the following days into a demonstration with more than 20,000 participants walking towards Jerusalem.
Earlier on Saturday, at least ten thousand reservists announced that they would no longer be available for the armed forces if the law were passed. A group of generals and senior officers of the Israeli security services said they would join those protests.
The law gives the government more power to choose Supreme Court justices. In addition, the Supreme Court is less likely to intervene in proposed laws in parliament. After earlier protests, the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attempted to reach an agreement with the opposition, but negotiations were cut short in June and since then the government has been trying to pass the laws on its own, much to the anger of the Israeli people.