[ad_1]
The words that came out of the mouth of Israeli army reservist, Reuven Benkler, sounded more like an enemy fighter than a senior army officer who had been loyal to his country for more than 25 years.
But Benkler, who retired with the rank of general, said he believed Israel’s future was in jeopardy and soft language would not save him.
“We have a prime minister who is totally sick – he has people next to him who are all fascists,” Benkler said in reference to members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative coalition government.
Benkler is a veteran of the war in Lebanon who, at age 65, continues to consider himself a proud member of the nation’s reserves. They are among a group of vocal and prominent reserves who have challenged the proposed court changes and joined the street protests that have devastated Israeli cities and communities over the past 10 weeks.
The latest demonstration in Tel Aviv Saturday night, which organizers claimed drew more than half a million people, was unprecedented and may represent the country’s largest protest yet.
“They’re stealing from the state,” Benkler said, referring to the proposed changes to state courts.
The amendment, according to opponents, would undermine the country’s system of checks and balances and could undermine the rights of minorities. They would also allow the government to overrule dissenting Supreme Court decisions through a majority vote in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.
“What they are trying to do is create a country that is more or less like Iran, where secular people will not be able to survive,” Benkler said, citing a widespread fear among protesters that Orthodox religious groups that support the government will move. in a hurry to impose conservative ideology on the wider population.
Many others fear the creeping authoritarianism in Israel that, once started, will be difficult to stop. It’s a theme that CBC News people mentioned frequently at the Tel Aviv protests on Saturday.
“I came from Russia,” protester Dmitri Sherykoff said. “I see how democracy fails, how democracy is lost.”
Sherykoff is wearing a rainbow flag and saying thank you for freedom in Israel.
“I made this parallel because [in Russia] we have a government that never listens to people. And in the end, we got what we got,” he said in reference to how Russian President Vladimir Putin stifled civil society groups and individual liberties by systematically dismantling the independent judicial system and other institutions.
Supporter from the government However, they believe that such changes are needed to address judicial overreach and allow the current government to implement its chosen agenda.
“These reforms are important,” said Boaz Bismuth, a Knesset member and former diplomat and prominent journalist. He is with Likud, the largest party in Netanyahu’s ruling coalition.
“In Israel, you have judges who take the power to define and decide — no one elects judges, people elect members of the Knesset,” Bismuth told CBC News in an interview at his office in Jerusalem.
“I can decide anything and the judge will overturn my decision. This is why the override provision is so important.”
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s security minister and one of the most conservative members of Netanyahu’s coalition, has made no secret of his desire to increase Jewish settlements in the occupied territories and expel Palestinians.
Underestimating the power of the state’s top court could speed up the process.
The huge turnout for this weekend’s protests – particularly in Tel Aviv where up to 300,000 people took to the streets on Saturday night – is significant because it shows that rather than retreating, popular resistance to judicial change may be growing.
“They [opponents of the judicial changes] certainly surprised the country,” said Dahlia Scheindlin, a Canadian-Israeli public policy analyst and pollster based mostly in Tel Aviv.
“I think the government was hoping there would be some pushback from the public, but I don’t think anyone predicted that reservists in the Army and Air Force would start threatening to not show up for duty or specifically for training.”
There has even been an extraordinary call from Isaac Herzog, Israel’s traditionally non-partisan president, to scrap the judicial overhaul and start over with a new, indivisible package.
The lack of intervention though has changed the trajectory of the coalition – indeed, Scheindlin said there was nothing that could have influenced the government’s decision to pass the bill so quickly.
“This is the culmination of the goal that right-wing forces in Israel have wanted for a long time because they want to advance an agenda that violates liberal and democratic principles,” he said.
“They want to advance annexation. They want to advance a more religious and theocratic society. They certainly don’t plan to stop.”
This week, the legislation will continue its rapid progress through the Knesset, with committees scheduled to hold hearings on the package every day this week.
Notably absent from the debate – and anger – over the law is the voice of Palestine, which has generally reacted to the potential change in the internal power balance of Israel with ambivalence.
Despite the potential implications of expanded Israeli control over the occupied West Bank, widespread Palestinian feeling appears to be that Israeli law is heavily skewed against them.
The holidays could see more strife
As Israeli society became increasingly polarized by the debate on judicial reform, the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories also grew increasingly heated, with now daily confrontations between Israeli security services, settlers and Palestinians.
While not directly connected to the Supreme Court question, there is a connection, said Reuven Hazan, a professor of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
“The extremists, at least on the Israeli side, are now emboldened by the fact that they have a minister in the cabinet who is voicing their concerns,” he told CBC News.
With the holy month of Ramadan coinciding this year with the eight days of the Jewish Passover, Hazan said he feared a serious escalation in the violence.
“I don’t see this holiday passing quietly.”
So far in 2023, more than 80 Palestinians, including militants and civilians, have been killed in Israeli military attacks. at the same time, 14 Israelis have been killed in attacks by Palestinian militants.
In one of the latest incidents on Sunday, the Israeli army killed three Palestinian gunmen who attacked a post in the occupied West Bank, the army said; The fourth gunman was arrested after surrendering.
The Lions’ Den, a militant group based in Nablus, issued a statement claiming the three gunmen were members.
On the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday night, despite the joy felt by many, there was also a backlash that anger might not stop the Netanyahu government from following through on the package.
“My father fled Russia to live in a democracy and in a place, so that his children, like me, will have a future,” said protester Miri Kantor. “And now I feel like I don’t have it.”
“I think that once it’s on the road, something will change – eventually,” said Gilad Engelberg, a psychologist. “Hope is the last thing to die.”
[ad_2]
Source link