Tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets on Saturday for the third week in a row to protest against the new government’s tough plans to impose sweeping bans on the country’s courts.
Police said 120,000 people attended two major protests in Tel Aviv, Israel’s liberal coastal metropolis, waving Israeli flags and placards with messages such as “Israel, we have a problem”.
Thousands more took part in rallies outside the president’s residence in Jerusalem, and in the cities of Haifa and Be’er Sheva.
The protest follows demonstrations a week ago that drew more than 80,000 people. It was the biggest display of public anger to date over plans put forward earlier this month by the new government of Benjamin Netanyahu, considered the most right-wing in Israel’s history, which would reduce the power of Israel’s judiciary.
Supporters argue that the plan – which would give the government and its allies control over the appointment of judges and allow a parliamentary majority to overrule top court decisions to break the law – is necessary to roll back three decades of excessive judicial activism.
But critics see the proposal as a politically motivated attempt to undermine already limited checks and balances on the Israeli government and undermine the independence of the judiciary. The attorney general warned last month that the improvements risked reducing Israel to a “democracy in name only”.
Former prime minister Yair Lapid, who leads the largest opposition party, Yesh Atid, said the protests were a “demonstration of support for the country”.
“People who love their country came here to defend democracy, to defend the judiciary,” he told protesters in Tel Aviv. “We will not give up until we win.”
Netanyahu, for his part, posted on Twitter an article from the US magazine Newsweek, entitled “Israel’s Judicial Reform ‘Controversy’ Is Much Ado About Nothing”.
Saturday’s protest comes after a week in which the dispute has intensified between the country’s judiciary and Netanyahu’s government of right-wing, ultrareligious and far-right parties.
On Wednesday, the country’s top court ordered Netanyahu to remove Aryeh Deri – a key ally who leads the second largest coalition party, Shas – from the cabinet, arguing that Deri’s appointment was untenable after he was convicted last year of tax fraud.
The order drew an angry response from the coalition, with justice minister Yariv Levin branding it “absurd” and Shas accusing the court of undermining the will of voters.
Deri also struck a defiant pose, promising that he would not be cowed. “When they close the door, we will enter through the window. When they close the window, we will break through the ceiling, with the help of God,” he said after the decision.
The government has so far also shown little sign of not being dissuaded by the street protests. After last week’s demonstrations, Netanyahu insisted that his coalition’s election victory late last year had given him the mandate to carry out the plan.
“Several months ago there was a big demonstration, the mother of all the demonstrations. “Millions of people went to the streets to vote in the elections,” he said at a cabinet meeting. “One of the main topics chosen is the reform of the judicial system.”