(Tel-Aviv) A compact crowd of Israelis again took to the streets of Tel-Aviv on Saturday evening to protest against the justice reform wanted by the government of Binyamin Netanyahu, which the demonstrators consider as an attack on democracy.
‘Save Democracy’, ‘Freedom for All’ and ‘Netanyahu is Leading Us to War’ read placards at the protest, held the day after a beachfront bombing. of Tel-Aviv having left one dead and seven wounded.
According to organizers, around 258,000 people protested in Tel Aviv against judicial reform, amidst a wave of Israeli flags. Police did not give attendance figures.
Other more modest demonstrations took place in Kfar Saba (center), Haifa (north) and Jerusalem in particular.
Since the announcement of the reform project in early January, tens of thousands of Israelis have gathered every week to denounce the text and shout down the government formed in December by Mr. Netanyahu.
The latter announced on March 27 a legislative “pause” to give a “chance […] to dialogue”, after an intensification of the protest, the start of a general strike and the appearance of tensions within the majority, but the mobilization against the reform remains strong.
For the government, the text aims, among other things, to rebalance powers by reducing the prerogatives of the Supreme Court, which the executive considers politicized, for the benefit of Parliament.
Critics of the reform believe, on the contrary, that it risks opening the way to an illiberal or authoritarian drift.
This new demonstration comes the day after a car attack in the Israeli metropolis that claimed the life of an Italian and injured seven people, according to the Israeli police.
Earlier Friday, two Israeli-British sisters were killed in another Palestinian attack in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
The violence has escalated in recent days after the brutal irruption of Israeli forces in the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, in the middle of Ramadan, which drew widespread condemnation.
