Protesters marched across Tel Aviv on Wednesday evening in “defense of the judiciary and its gatekeepers” led by all major protest groups and a host of former judges. Among them protest groups of Israeli students, hi-tech workers, doctors, attorneys, Hadash and Communist Party of Israel activists, LGBT organizations and former ministers Tzipi Livni and Avi Nissenkorn as well as Israeli Bar Association head Amit Becher.
Hadash and Communist Party of Israel activists at the march against the judicial overhaul, in Kaplan Street, Wednesday, August 2, 2023 (Photo: Zo Haderech)
Protest organization “Kaplan Force” released a statement ahead of the march, claiming that “Netanyahu has been running a campaign aimed at whitewashing his intention to violate the High Court of Justice’s rulings and plunge Israel into a serious legal crisis. He intends to be a criminal above the law.” “This is total anarchy,” the statement continued, “a process at the end of which everything will collapse and only he will remain as the sole ruler – a Turkish dictatorship with a Hungarian flavor.” “This process is still reversible if we act now. We can still save democracy if we go out en masse to protect the judicial system [so that it] will remain independent.”
“You have ruined the country and we will fix it. Democracy! Democracy!” chanted demonstrators in the coastal city, which has become the epicenter of anti-government demonstrations since the overhaul was unveiled in January.
Protesters Wednesday first gathered on Rothschild Boulevard before marching to the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court. From there, they continued to Kaplan Street, the site of the main weekly rallies.
The protest movement offering no indication that it plans to fold after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government passed the first piece of legislation from its judicial overhaul last week. Wednesday’s demonstration followed even larger ones that took place across the country on Saturday night, kicking off the 30th week of protests and amassing over 400,000 Israelis.
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=31133
