JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday delayed a decision on bitterly contested plans for a judicial overhaul until next month amid fears that Israel’s worst national crisis in years could fracture his coalition or escalate into violence.
It was unclear how far the bill’s delay to the next parliamentary session, coming after weeks of mass protests, will satisfy either side or cool a crisis the army chief said on Monday made “this hour different to any before”.
A hard-right coalition partner, Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, agreed to the delay in exchange for a commitment to submit the legislation in the next session of parliament. But another important hard-right lawmaker called it a mistake.
Opponents of the plan to tighten parliament’s control over judicial processes say it is a threat to democracy and have mobilised huge protests against it. Supporters of the legislation, including far-right football fans, have promised counter demonstrations.Flights from Ben Gurion airport were grounded and seaports, banks, hospitals and medical services were also set to stop work as the head of the national labour union Histadrut called for a general strike to stop the judicial overhaul going ahead.
Army chief of staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said on Monday: “We have not known such days of external threats coalescing, while a storm is brewing at home.”
White House spokesperson John Kirby said U.S. President Joe Biden had been very forthright with Netanyahu, sharing his concerns over the situation with him directly.
Netanyahu, who called on Twitter for both sides to avoid violence, was trying to hold together his nationalist-religious coalition after his decision on Sunday to sack the defence chief for opposing his plans prompted mass overnight protests.
He is due to make a public statement at 1705 GMT. 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.
Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have said the overhaul must go ahead, highlighting the tensions within Netanyahu’s coalition. Smotrich urged backers to join a protest, saying “we will not let them steal our voice and our country”.
However, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who has been leading the process, said that as a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party he would respect whatever decision the prime minister reached.
“A situation in which everyone does as they wish is liable to bring about the instant fall of the government and collapse of Likud,” he said in a statement.
As parliament passed a confidence vote in the government, tens of thousands of protesters returned to the streets in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, many waving the blue and white Israeli flags that have been become an emblem of the protests.
A counter-demonstration planned later in front of the Knesset was expected to include Jewish settler groups and football supporter groups such as La Familia, an ultra-nationalist group associated with the Beitar Jerusalem club.
With fears of violence fuelled by social media posts calling for attacks on left-wing Israelis, police numbers were reinforced to handle possible trouble.
The judicial legislation has ignited some of the biggest street demonstrations in Israel’s history and drawn a rare intervention by the head of state. “For the sake of the unity of the people of Israel, for the sake of responsibility, I call on you to stop the legislative process immediately,” President Isaac Herzog said on Twitter. –Agencies
