Tens of thousands of Israelis rallied across the country Saturday night to protest Benjamin Netanyahu’s judiciary reform bill. Some 130,000 people participated in the protest in Tel Aviv. More than 40 civil and political organizations call for new demonstrations next week.
Like every Saturday, the Israelis opposed to Prime Minister Netanyahu and his far-right government demonstrated again. But this time there were tens of thousands who paraded in different cities of the country. More than 130,000 in Tel Aviv, 6,000 in Haifa, 4,000 in Jerusalem, reports the daily Haaretz. Coming from various political horizons, the protesters demanded an end to the reform project of the judiciary promoted by Netanyahu.
“It’s unbelievable that a man tried for corruption runs the country and now wants to appoint judges,” said one of the protesters who fear the country is moving away from democracy.
“Let’s protect minorities”, “we are not in Poland, let alone in Hungary”, chanted the protesters symbolically grouped in front of the residence of Issac Herzog, the Israeli president, reports Michel Paul, an RFI correspondent from Jerusalem.
This is the most important demonstration in Israel since the return to power of “Bibi”, as the population refers to Benjamin Netanyahu, the powerful Prime Minister involved in a series of corruption cases, but to whom a large part of the population he continues to give his support in exchange for promises to develop Greater Israel. Netanyahu and his allies run the most right-wing government in the country’s history.