Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called on the government to freeze a contentious judicial overhaul, urging the public to stop massive street demonstrations and to begin repairing what he called a widening rift in society that’s endangering the country’s security.
“Today, publicly, for the sake of Israel’s security and the security of our children, I say we must stop the judicial overhaul,” Gallant said in a televised address made while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on a trip to London.
The widening rift in society caused by the government’s program to change the legal system is “a real threat” at a time when Israel faces “unprecedented security challenges,” he added.
“I have never encountered the intensity of the anger and pain I have seen now,” he said. “The rift in society is penetrating the army and this is an immediate and tangible danger to the security of the state. I will not lend my hand to this.”
In the nearly three months since the judicial overhaul has been announced, Israel’s closest allies, including the U.S., U.K., Germany and France, have expressed alarm that the changes could greatly harm its democracy. U.S. President Joe Biden expressed concern about the judicial overhaul last week and appealed for compromise.
The politically risky move by Gallant, the second most important figure in the government, was, in effect, a direct challenge to Netanyahu. The two met on Thursday, and afterward Netanyahu told the nation that the legislation would be passed in the coming week as planned, adding he would make sure minority and civil rights were protected.
It’s unclear whether enough members of the coalition will join Gallant in the coming days for him to succeed in his effort. Israeli media reported two others but he would need at least three.
Gallant spoke while some 200,000 Israelis took to the streets all across the country for the 12th week of protest over the judicial plan, which seeks to reduce the power of the Supreme Court to challenge executive and legislative action.
It has been among the most sustained civil protests in the nation’s 75 years and is driven by fears of Netanyahu’s far-right religious coalition, some of whose leaders speak openly of building a more pious legal structure inspired by Jewish law. Secular Israelis who have built a strong tech-based economy are afraid they might have a limited future.
Gallant, who described himself as a man of the right and Likud party stalwart, said he favors a change in the power of the judiciary. But the matter has so divided the nation and is so important that he called for a stop until after the April holidays — Passover, Memorial Day and Independence Day — and then a serious debate.
The rift has not only caused protests but has chilled investor confidence and harmed the shekel, leading some to take money out of the country and threaten to leave.
On Thursday, Israel’s parliament approved the first part of the overhaul that reduced the authority of the legal system to declare a prime minister incapacitated, a change that Netanyahu then said cleared the way for him to fully engage in pushing forward the change to the judiciary.
This was despite a high court ruling that stipulated that Netanyahu, who faces charges of corruption he has denied, couldn’t take an active part in changing the legal system.
Shortly before Gallant spoke on television on Saturday, two Israeli soldiers were wounded in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank town of Huwara, the third shooting there in a month. Gallant mentioned both the rising violence in the occupied areas and the danger from Iran in calling for a halt to the legislative process.
He also confronted in his speech the growing threat by Israeli reservists and active duty soldiers who are protesting by not showing up when called.
“Any refusal of service in our military should be stopped immediately,” Gallant said. “It erodes the power of the army.”
It remains unclear if the protests would actually stop if the legislation were frozen since many on the street say they’d erred in being apolitical in the past and were now determined to take back a society from the religious right.
