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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Masses protest judicial overhaul, with toned-down Tel Aviv rally in shadow of terror attack

2023-08-06

The US State Department must still be handing out crinkling envelopes to the cadres, because their Nudge computer models predict that Bibi must just give up and go away.

[IsraelTimes] Organizers coordinate with police, don’t play music or try to block roads as over 100,000 demonstrate in city shortly after fatal shooting; tens of thousands protest elsewhere

Masses rallied nationwide Saturday evening for the 31st consecutive week against the government’s attempt to overhaul the judiciary, with the main rally in Tel Aviv being held in the shadow of a fatal Paleostinian terror attack in the city that took place just as the demonstrations were beginning.

Some 105,000 people were estimated by Channel 13 — citing the CrowdSolutions firm — to have attended the main rally at Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Street, which began following a march from Kikar Dizengoff that started at 7 p.m. — around when the shooting attack took place elsewhere in the city.

Tel Aviv municipal security officer Chen Amir, 42, was shot and killed by a member of the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
terror group after the terrorist raised officers’ suspicion in the bustling Nachalat Binyamin neighborhood. The terrorist was rubbed out by Amir’s colleague, and a senior police source was later quoted by the Ynet news site as saying the gunman had possibly planned to target the anti-overhaul protesters at Kaplan.

In light of the attack, protest organizers held the mass rally as planned, with increased police presence and without music being played from the loudspeakers during the demonstration. They also didn’t move to block roads, as they have in most weeks after the rally — in order to not complicate access for the security forces and emergency services in the attack’s aftermath.

"Even in difficult and painful moments, it is our duty to keep fighting for Israeli democracy," organizers said in a statement. "The regime coup harms national security and the Israeli society’s resilience."

Other rallies were held in about 150 other locations around the country, including thousands near Netanyahu’s private residence in Jerusalem as well as thousands in Haifa, Herzliya, Netanya, Hod Hasharon, Rehovot and many other cities.

The protests even reached the neighboring island of Cyprus, where National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir — who is in charge of police and has consistently urged more forceful treatment toward anti-overhaul protesters — spent the weekend. Photos published on social media showed dozens of Israelis demonstrating during Shabbat near where Ben Gvir was staying in the city of Paphos.

Last week, politicians approved a bill that prevents judges from striking down government and ministerial decisions on the basis they are "unreasonable."

The law was approved by all 64 coalition members — with the entire 56-strong opposition boycotting the vote — despite the sustained mass protests, vehement opposition from top judicial, security, economic and public figures, repeated warnings from allies, chief among them the US, and thousands of military reservists vowing to quit service.

Petitions against the law have been filed to the High Court, with an unprecedented 15-judge panel to hear them next month.

In recent interviews with US media on the reasonableness law, the prime minister has repeatedly refused to say whether he would adhere to a potential ruling in which the High Court of Justice strikes down a Basic Law, and warned the court against doing so. Other members of his Likud party have said such a ruling would be respected, but would nevertheless cause a crisis in the country.

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