They arrived at Jerusalem the tens of thousands of people who, having left Tel Aviv on Tuesday, have been marching for days to “save democracy”, that is to interrupt the vote in the Knesset on the first measure of the justice reform package.
Part of Route 1 it is blocked due to the large number of protesters who have arrived in the capital, with the police watching over them. Protests will also take place in the evening at the traditional gathering on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv and in 150 other places across Israel, for the 29th week consecutive.
They would be beyond 200 thousand the people who are demonstrating: near the Knesset they would have gathered about 85 thousand people while at least another 100 thousand poured into the streets of Jerusalem, 14 thousand ad Haifa and 10 thousand y Netanyha. Other smaller demonstrations would be underway in numerous other cities and municipalities across the country.
Tomorrow the Parliament will begin discussing the bill on “reasonableness” with a view to the second and third readings scheduled for Monday. The bill vwants to ban judges to express themselves on the “reasonableness” of the decisions taken by the executive and elected officials: it would be the approval of the first law in the context of the justice reform promoted by the government of extreme right which aims to weaken the judiciary and change the balance between powers, in favor of the political one
According to some sources Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant would be trying to postpone the final vote In a statement from the defense minister quoted by ‘The Times of Israel’, Gallant affirms that he “wants to take steps to reach a broad consensus and guarantee the safety of the State of Israel”.
Almost 500 reservists active in the military intelligence directorate have published a letter announcing that they will suspend their voluntary reserve service in protest against the government’s plans to overhaul the judicial system: the reservists are calling on the government to “immediately stop dictatorial moves that violate the contract between the government of Israel and its citizens”.
Meanwhile 10 thousand reservists of 40 units The military announced today that they will no longer volunteer for their units if the first phase of justice reform is approved in the Knesset. “We were trained to defend Israel’s borders,” a spokesman said. “Today the border to defend is that between democracy and a dictatorship”.
Meanwhile senior executives of the Netanyahu coalition government on commercial television Channel 12 confirmed that: “The position of the government and the coalition is unequivocal. The greatest blows to security and democracy in Israel would occur if the government bowed to diktat of military units”.
Meanwhile, Histadrut, the powerful federation of Israeli trade unions, could call a new general strike: the head of the trade union federation, Arnon Bar-David, has announced that he will hold a “emergency meeting” , to respond to the requests of those who would like to stop the country. Times of Israel writes it.