Tens of thousands of protesters marched into Jerusalem Saturday night and hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv and other cities in a final show of force aimed at blocking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial judicial reforms.
Also on Saturday, more than 100 former Israeli security chiefs signed a letter imploring Israel’s prime minister to halt the legislation, and thousands more reservists said they would no longer report for duty in protest of the plan.
Amid 33-degree Celsius (91-degree Fahrenheit) heat, the march into Jerusalem turned the city’s main entrance into a sea of blue and white Israeli flags as marchers completed the final leg of a four-day, 70-kilometer (45-mile) trek from Tel Aviv to the Knesset.
The number of marchers grew from hundreds to thousands as the march progressed, and they were greeted by cheering protesters in Jerusalem ahead of Monday’s expected vote, before camping in rows of small white tents outside the Knesset. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of the coastal city of Tel Aviv, the country’s commercial and cultural capital, as well as Beersheva, Haifa and Netanya.
Netanyahu and his far-right allies say sweeping reforms are needed to curb what they say is the excessive power of unelected judges. But their critics say the plan will undermine the country’s system of checks and balances and set it on a path to dictatorship.
U.S. President Joe Biden urged Netanyahu to halt the plan and seek broad consensus.
The proposed changes have drawn harsh criticism from business and medical leaders, and the rapidly growing number of reservists in key forces have said they would stop reporting to duty if the plan passes, raising concerns that national security interests could be at risk. Another 10,000 reservists announced they were off duty Saturday night, according to Brothers in Arms, a protest group representing ex-soldiers.
More than 100 former senior security officials, including retired military commanders, police chiefs and intelligence agency heads, joined those calls on Saturday, signing a letter to Netanyahu accusing him of harming the Israeli military and urging him to halt the legislation.
Signatories include former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and former Army Chief of Staff and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon. Both are political opponents of Netanyahu.
“This legislation is destroying what is common to Israeli society, tearing apart the people, disintegrating the IDF, and dealing a fatal blow to Israel’s security,” the former officials wrote.
“The legislative process violates the 75-year-old social contract between the Israeli government and the thousands of reserve officers and soldiers from the land, air, sea and intelligence services who have volunteered for years to defend Israel’s democratic state and are now heartbroken to announce that they will be suspending their volunteer service,” the letter said.
Israel Katz, a senior cabinet minister in Netanyahu’s Likud party, said the bill would somehow be passed on Monday.
“I speak for citizens who are not yet ready to have their voices canceled due to threats of denial of service or blockades of airports, highways and train stations,” he told Channel 12 television. “This is clearly an attempt to use military service to force a policy change from the government.”
After seven months of the most sustained and violent demonstrations the country has ever seen, the grassroots protest movement has reached fever pitch.
Parliament is expected to vote on Monday on a measure that would limit the Supreme Court’s oversight powers and prevent judges from overturning government decisions on grounds of “unreasonableness”.
Supporters say the current “reasonableness” standard gives judges disproportionate power over decisions made by elected officials. But critics say removing the standard, which is invoked only in rare circumstances, would allow the government to make arbitrary decisions, make improper appointments or firings and open the door to corruption.
Monday’s vote will mark the first major piece of legislation to be approved.
The overhaul also calls for other sweeping reforms aimed at limiting judicial power, from limiting the Supreme Court’s ability to challenge parliamentary decisions to changing how judges are selected.
Protesters across Israeli society see the reforms as a power grab amid growing personal and political grievances over Netanyahu’s trial on corruption charges, as they want to deepen Israel’s grip on the occupied West Bank and perpetuate a controversial conscription exemption for ultra-Orthodox men.
In a speech on Thursday, Netanyahu ramped up reforms and dismissed allegations that the plan would destroy the foundations of Israel’s democracy as absurd.
“It’s an attempt to mislead you about something that has no basis in reality,” he said. The country’s defense minister, Yoav Galant, alarmed by the growing number of reservists refusing to serve, urged a postponement of Monday’s vote, according to Israeli media reports. It is unclear whether others will join him.