Thousands demonstrate against extremist Israeli cabinet
Tens of thousands of protesters have rallied in cities and towns across Israel for the 23rd week, protesting controversial plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s extremist cabinet to overhaul the judiciary as well as deadly violence hitting Palestinian communities.
The mass demonstrations, which drew some 100,000 people on Saturday, began in January shortly after Netanyahu’s far-right cabinet was sworn in, aljazeera.com reported.
Gaining momentum and seeing large turnouts of more than 200,000 demonstrators at times, protest organisers have said they will not give up until the cabinet cancels the proposed legal changes rather than delaying them.
In central Tel Aviv, protester Michal Gat told AFP: “We’re being held hostage”.
Palestinian crime deaths
Some people at the protest also held signs criticising cabinet inaction over a soaring crime wave that has affected Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Since the start of the year, some 102 Palestinian-Israelis have been killed in crime-related violence, according to Israeli media.
On Thursday, five Palestinian-Israelis were shot dead at a car wash in Yafia, a town near the city of Nazareth, police said.
The protesters turned out in the coastal city of Tel Aviv on Saturday and also in other cities, including Haifa and Rehovot, respectively in the northern and central parts of the occupied territories, Press TV reported.
Israel’s extremist and far-right cabinet, which is made up of Netanyahu’s Likud party and its ultra-Orthodox allies, says the changes are necessary to reverse what it describes as decades-long overreach by the judiciary.
Several Israeli officials have warned that the entity is facing a “real danger” as back-to-back protests have hit cities amid bitter rifts over the extremist direction of the regime. They include Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, who has warned of “collapse” and “implosion.”
“We have been here... with our kids, in the rain or hot weather” for 23 weeks, a protester told AFP.
“...We need to stand and safeguard our rights and make sure that doesn’t happen at all again and they don’t pick up their heads and pass legislations that will change things for good,” another was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Protesters also carried a poster with half the face of Netanyahu and half the face of deceased Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, reading, ‘Bibi Escobar’.
Faced with overwhelming public pressure, Netanyahu announced a “pause” in his bid to enact the plan back in late March.
Last month, however, he vowed to “continue our efforts to reach understandings as broad as possible” on the judicial overhaul plan.