Israel experienced a day of tension and concern yesterday after Parliament approved on Monday the key judicial reform law of the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu, which triggered mass protests and exacerbated the divisions that have been experienced in the country for a long time months. The law limits the Supreme Court's power to intervene in government decisions.
The approval - by 64 parliamentarians of the government coalition, against 56 of the opposition who boycotted the vote - was followed by a wave of spontaneous protests throughout the country, which lasted until the morning of this Tuesday .
Israelis woke up yesterday to the images of the police repression against the demonstrators, determined to keep blocked one of the main arteries of Tel-Aviv, and who were finally evicted by force and using water cannons. The Israeli press reacted not only with harsh editorials against the Government but also with the printing of black covers by five of the country's main newspapers.
"A black day for Israeli democracy", read a message written in white letters on the five covers, the product of a campaign promoted and financed by the protest movement of companies in the high-tech sector against judicial reform , which aims to grant more power to the Executive to the detriment of justice, whose independence would be deeply undermined.
Another of the groups organizing the protests, Free Israel, wrote on its Twitter account that it is a difficult day for the State of Israel, which has suffered a "terrible wound to the heart" from a "dictatorial" Government, and urged to "renew and strengthen the resistance" against the reform.
The tension also spread to the country's hospitals, many of which offered a restricted service or were limited to emergency treatments, as part of a one-day strike by the Association of Doctors Israel
But the focus of attention was not only the hospitals or the newspapers, but the Supreme Court, after the appeal by civil society groups to overturn the law approved on Monday by the Knesset or Parliament. The Movement for Quality Government in Israel argued that it is "an unconstitutional law because it fundamentally changes the basic structure of Israeli parliamentary democracy and the nature of the regime." This oenagé also denounced that, in practice, the law "abolishes the judicial power and seriously damages the delicate fabric of the separation of powers and the system of checks and balances in the State of Israel", and "gives unlimited power to the Executive".
Consulted by Efe, the Israeli political analyst Amir Oren explained that there is no precedent for an intervention by the Supreme Court in cases like this, but he did not rule out that the court intervenes, which would trigger "a confrontation between two powers" . "Netanyahu is clearly trying to use his political power to get rid of his legal problems," added Oren, referring to the corruption trials facing the president, accused of fraud, bribery and breach of trust.
Precisely the trials against the prime minister were the trigger for a recommendation yesterday by the Attorney General of the State, Gali Baharav-Miara, to revoke a law approved in March that shields Netanyahu from the possibility of being challenged or declared unfit to perform the duties of his position.
That law was seen at the time as a reaction to fears that the Supreme Court could force the president to resign due to a conflict of interest, since he is the leader of a Government coalition that promotes drastic judicial reform while facing several corruption charges. Baharav-Miara pointed out yesterday that it was "an improper use of the authority of the Knesset to improve the personal situation of the prime minister and allow him to operate in defiance of the court's decision."
