Anti-gov’t protests continue in shadow of Jerusalem attack

Once more, thousands of people took to the streets of Israel’s cities this evening to protest against the government’s planned changes to the judicial system, as they have every Saturday night for the past month. This evening, the demonstrations were overshadowed by the deadly terrorist attack in Jerusalem on Friday evening. Seven people were killed and at least three people were severely wounded in the shooting attack near a synagogue in Jerusalem’s Neve Yaakov neighborhood. The attacker was later shot dead by police officers when he opened fire at them.

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The main demonstration in Tel Aviv, in Kaplan Street, where government offices are located, began with a minute’s silence as a mark of respect for the dead and injured in the attack. Former chief of staff and minister of defense Moshe Ya’alon, who spoke at the demonstration, opened by saying, “This is a tough evening, and evening of bereavement, sadness, and national pain, that unites all of us.”

Prof. Yaniv Roznai, an associate law professor and co-director of the Rubinstein Center for Constitutional Challenges at Reichman University, speaking at the demonstration organized by The Movement for Quality Government in Israel in Tel Aviv’s Habima Square, said, “What we are seeing is not reform of the legal system. This is a collection of reforms, each of which is problematic, and which together could lead to a real coup in Israel in which one arm of government, the executive, has a blank check to do whatever it wants.

“In every democratic country in the world there are mechanisms designed to ensure that rights are protected and that political power is not concentrated in one body. Israel is the only democratic country – the only one – without such mechanisms. All that we have to restrain the ruling power is the legal system and the legal counsel in government ministries, and these are precisely what they want to weaken to the foundations.”

Leader of the Opposition and chair of the Yesh Atid party Yair Lapid spoke at the demonstration in Jerusalem outside the president’s residence. “We have come here in Jerusalem to remind everyone that we are one people. We stand against terrorism as one people. The government must decide whether it want to fight terrorism or whether it wants to fight against Israeli democracy, whether it wants to unite us, or to tear us apart from the inside,” he said.

Other large demonstrations took place in Haifa and Herzliya.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on January 28, 2023.

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2023.