Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has temporarily paused the proposed judicial reform amid nationwide protests and mounting pressure from President Joe Biden’s White House.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have reached an agreement that the judicial reform legislation will be frozen for the time being and brought up again during the Knesset’s summer session,” Israeli broadcaster Arutz Sheva reported Monday afternoon.
Israeli TV channel i24news reported prime minister’s remarks:
“I am taking a break for dialogue. I am giving it a real opportunity for real dialogue to reach a wide agreement,” he said. “I have decided to pause the advancement of the law in this Knesset session in order to give time for negotiations and agreement.”
Ahead of the public announcement, the Israeli prime minister reportedly conveyed his decision to the Biden White House. “Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed the U.S. administration that he would halt the legislation, media reported on Monday,” the Israeli TV channel i24news reported.
“The United States is deeply concerned by events in Israel and ‘strongly urges’ leaders there to find compromise as soon as possible, a White House spokesperson said on Sunday after the firing of Israel’s defense minister triggered mass protests,” the broadcaster added.
The move to freeze the judicial reform comes a day after Prime Minister Netanyahu dismissed Defense Minister and fellow Likud party lawmaker Yoav Gallant after he came out publicly against his government’s judicial reform. “The prime minister told Gallant he lost his trust in the defense minister after he “went behind the government’s back” on Saturday evening, while Netanyahu was visiting the United Kingdom,” the Jerusalem Post reported.
Large protests were reported in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv ahead of the prime minister’s announcement, the Times of Israel reported:
Masses rallied across Israel on Monday ahead of an expected announcement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he was halting judicial overhaul legislation in the face of skyrocketing opposition.In Jerusalem, some 100,000 people protested outside the Knesset, ahead of an expected right-wing counter-protest, while in Tel Aviv a group of demonstrators ran onto the Ayalon Highway, temporarily blocking traffic at Hashalom Interchange. Protests were also held in Haifa and Beersheba.As the nation waited for Netanyahu’s address, the premier offered a brief statement in which he called on “protesters in Jerusalem, from the right and left, to act responsibly and without violence.”The prime minister had originally been expected to speak in the morning, but his address was delayed again and again as he huddled with coalition leaders, amid reported threats by Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben Gvir to quit, and as Religious Zionism chief Bezalel Smotrich called on the right to show up in droves for the pro-overhaul rally.
The Jerusalem Post reported the planned right-wing counter-protest in Jerusalem:
Right-wing groups including Regavim, Im Tirzu, Ad Kan, Bezalmo and Torat Lehima, announced that they would be holding a counter-protest at 6 p.m. on Monday evening near the High Court of Justice in response to the protest against the judicial reform and the coalition being held in front of the Knesset.Advertisements for the protest published online stated that the Right is in an “emergency situation,” warning that “they will not steal the elections from us.”National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir shared the advertisement on Twitter writing “today we stop being silent. Today is the day the Right wakes up. Share it forward.”Police have begun preparing at the site amid concerns that the protesters could clash and the situation could escalate to violence.
The judicial reform proposed by Prime Minister Netanyahu would have given Israel’s elected government the freedom to amend the constitution and appoint judges to the Supreme Court, a move bitterly opposed by the leftwing parties and activist groups.
“The controversial legal changes would have made the governing coalition all but immune to judicial review when appointing key cabinet officers and amending Israel’s constitutional framework. It would have also let the governing party and its allies handpick almost without any opposition Supreme Court justices,” the newspaper Israel Hayom noted Monday.
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