Israel’s two-month-old protest movement took to the streets for a “day of disruption” as the parliament passed the first part of the hardline government’s controversial judicial changes into law.
The legislation, designed to protect the position of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was approved early on Thursday, after a heated all-night debate, by 61 votes to 47 – the minimum majority required.
On Thursday evening, Netanyahu made a televised address in which he called for unity, pledging to protect civil rights and democracy.
“We can’t let any disagreement, however fierce, endanger our joint future,” he said. “To avoid a rift in the people, each side must take seriously the claims and concerns of the other.
“Until now, my hands were bound. Now, I am getting involved,” he said, referring to a now obsolete decision by the attorney general’s office banning him from involvement in the judicial overhaul on the grounds of potential conflict of interest given his corruption trial.
The prime minister’s remarks came at the end of a dramatic day in Israel, during which the societal, constitutional and political crises the judicial overhaul has triggered were clearly on show.
According to the first part of the proposals passed on Thursday, Israel’s attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, is in effect no longer capable of declaring Netanyahu unfit for office, even if she believes he is attempting to use the judicial overhaul to overturn his criminal charges. The prime minister denies all the allegations against him.
Israel’s newly elected government, made up of far-right and religious parties, introduced the amendment in February after the Baharav-Miara decision barring him from engaging with the judicial reform, fearing the attorney general might go on to declare Netanyahu “incapacitated”.
Commenting on the passing of the “incapacitation bill”, the opposition chairperson, Yair Lapid, said: “Like thieves in the night, the coalition has now ratified a contemptible and corrupt personal piece of legislation against a ludicrous rumour.”
Speculation that Netanyahu might be announcing a pause in the legislative process in his Thursday evening address was quickly put to rest after the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, was summoned beforehand to the prime minister’s private residence in Jerusalem and dissuaded from making a public statement calling on the government to freeze the overhaul.
While Israeli media have reported that Netanyahu – taken aback by the scale of the opposition to the plans – is open to compromise, he appears to be hostage to his coalition’s junior far-right partners, who have threatened to bring down the government if their demands are not met.
The two architects of the changes – the Likud party’s justice minister, Yariv Levin, and the extremist Simcha Rothman, who chairs the Knesset’s law and justice committee – have pledged to pass the most important elements of the far-reaching proposals before the Knesset breaks up next week for the Passover holiday.
Among the other plans for the judiciary are bills that would give politicians control over appointments to Israel’s supreme court and severely curtail its ability to overturn laws. Its supporters say the changes are needed to rein in what they see as a leftwing bias in the decisions of the court, which serves an outsized role in a country with no formal constitution or second legislative chamber.
Critics, however, have raised fears of democratic backsliding, with significant pressure coming from the hi-tech sector, the military and Israel’s US allies. Palestinian citizens of Israel, who face systemic discrimination, as well as those living under military rule in the occupied territories, have long questioned Israel’s democratic character.
Demonstrations against the proposals began in early January in central Tel Aviv, evolving into the biggest protest movement in the country’s history. Gatherings drawing hundreds of thousands of people have taken place in every Israeli city, as well as outside the Knesset and politicians’ homes in Jerusalem.
Several additional “days of disruption” have blocked major motorways and resulted in clashes in which Israeli police have used mounted officers, stun grenades and water cannon to disperse demonstrators.
The protests appear to be growing more intense. On Thursday, at least 75 people across the country were arrested, including 18 who police said sprayed red paint and blocked an entrance to a police station in southern Tel Aviv, and one person who allegedly used a flagpole to hit Avi Dichter, a minister and senior member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, in an incident near Ben Gurion airport.
Only one in four voters support the judicial overhaul in its current form, according to recent polling by Israel’s Channel 12. Several previous attempts at delay, negotiation and compromise brokered by the figurehead president, Isaac Herzog, have been declared unworkable by the government.
