After they unfurled a giant banner bearing Israel’s Declaration of Independence last week, on Saturday evening, demonstrators protesting the government’s judicial reform bill marched with a large banner calling out Netanyahu.
The banner depicts Netanyahu alongside Hungary’s Viktor Orban, Russia’s Putin, Turkey’s Erdogan, and former Iranian supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini. The statement: “From start-up nation to shut-down nation” was written in English on the banner.
Earlier Saturday, the demonstration organizers commented on Netanyahu, who told his cabinet Friday that he wished he could give them “a fist to strike them with,” referring to the protesters. The organizers stated: “Every citizen who reads his words knows that he lost all discretion. This is an intensification of his incitement against hundreds of thousands of good Israelis who are fighting for democracy. This is what a prime minister who understands that he has lost legitimacy looks like. We call the President and the party leaders to decry and denounce the words of the national inciter.”
The planned judicial reform has been a contentious issue in Israeli public discourse in recent months. Every Saturday night over the past eight weeks, thousands of proters have gathered in central Tel Aviv to show their dismay with the plan, which they see as an attack on Israeli democracy.
Last week, the Knesset approved the first reading of the first two laws of the judicial reform.
Two bills, which relate to the Basic Law: The Judiciary, were voted upon. The two clauses which were approved are a clause dealing with changing the composition of the Judicial Selection Committee so that it has a majority of members of the coalition, as well as a clause that will prevent the Supreme Court from striking down Basic Laws.
The bills were approved by a majority of 63 MKs who voted in favor and 47 who voted against them. They will now be returned to the Knesset Constitution Committee, which will prepare them for their second and third readings.