- Title: Protesters gather in Jerusalem, residents differ on judicial reform
- Date: 27th March 2023
- Summary: WHITEBOARD SHOWING RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN (LEFT) WITH THE WRITING 'DEAD END' UNDER HIM, TURKISH PRESIDENT TAYYIP ERDOGAN (CENTER) WITH THE WRITING 'AROUND THE CORNER' UNDER HIM, AND ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU WITH THE WRITING 'YOU ARE HERE' UNDER HIM
- Embargoed: 10th April 2023 12:39
- Keywords: Israel Israeli judicial reform Israelis protest against judicial reform Jerusalem protests
- Location: JERUSALEM
- City: JERUSALEM
- Country: Israel
- Topics: Middle East,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA002053427032023RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Flag-waving Israelis gathered on Monday (March 27) outside the Knesset in Jerusalem to protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government's judicial overhaul.
Protesters chanted 'democracy', waved the blue and white flags and carried signs, in their call to halt the bitterly contested plans to overhaul the judiciary.
Netanyahu's coalition plunged into chaos on Monday, after mass overnight protests over the sacking of his defense chief piled pressure on the government to stop legislation process.
Netanyahu had been expected to make a televised statement on Monday morning announcing the plans had been suspended. But, amid reports that his nationalist-religious coalition risked breaking apart, Israeli TV stations said the statement was postponed.
Monday morning's political turmoil followed a dramatic night of protests in cities across Israel, with tens of thousands flooding streets following Netanyahu's announcement that he had dismissed Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
A day earlier, Gallant had made a televised appeal for the government to halt its flagship overhaul of the judicial system, warning that the deep split it had opened up in Israeli society was affecting the military and threatening national security.
As opposition spread, the head of the Histadrut labor union, Arnon Bar-David, called for a general strike if the proposals were not halted.
"He has to stop all of this and he has to stop being the prime minister because he's proven that he's crazy," said 52-year-old Jerusalem resident Naomi Lulav.
The judicial overhaul, which would give the executive more control over appointing judges to the Supreme Court and allow the government to override court rulings on the basis of a simple parliamentary majority, has drawn mass protests for weeks.
"The reform is an absolute necessity for this country to continue in a democratic fashion," a physician from Jerusalem, Alan Mazurek, told Reuters.
While the government says the overhaul is needed to rein in activist judges and set a proper balance between the elected government and the judiciary, opponents see it as an undermining of legal checks and balances and a threat to Israel's democracy.
"I think stopping the reform is positive, necessary and for now, the only way to go," said Jerusalem resident Esther Lapian.
Netanyahu, on trial on corruption charges that he denies, has so far vowed to continue with the project and a central part of the overhaul package, a bill that would tighten political control over judicial appointments, is due to be voted on in parliament this week.
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