The anger does not diminish. On the evening of Saturday May 27, thousands of Israelis once again took to the streets of Tel Aviv, for the 21st consecutive week, to protest against the controversial plan to reform the judicial system of the government of Binyamin Netanyahu. Demonstrations also took place in other Israeli cities, such as Haifa (north) and Beersheva (south).
Since January, demonstrators have gathered every week both to denounce the reform and to shout down the government of the Prime Minister, charged with corruption in a series of cases. In the absence of official figures on the number of participants in the demonstrations, the Israeli media nevertheless estimate “tens of thousands” the number of participants in Saturday’s demonstration in Tel Aviv.
A “pause” in the reform project
Faced with this bronca, Benyamin Netanyahu announced on March 27 a “break” vis-à-vis this bill to give, in his view, a “luck (…) to dialogue”. For the government, one of the most right-wing in the history of Israel, the reform of the judicial system aims, among other things, to rebalance powers by reducing the prerogatives of the Supreme Court, which the executive considers politicized, in favor of the Parliament.
But critics of the reform believe on the contrary that it risks opening the way to an authoritarian drift. Fears shared by the international community. On March 19, US President Joe Biden called Binyamin Netanyahu to invite him to find a “compromise”. “Democratic societies are strengthened by effective checks and balances” and any substantive change must benefit from the “widest possible popular support”, said Joe Biden, according to comments reported by the White House.
