By Oyintari Ben
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu postponed a decision on hotly debated plans for a judicial reform until next month out of concern that his coalition could be torn apart, or that violence could break out due to Israel’s biggest national crisis in years.
The army chief claimed on Monday that the current situation rendered “this hour different from any before,” although it is unknown to what extent the bill’s postponement until the following parliamentary session, proposed by Jewish Power, a far-right coalition member, could appease either side or calm it down.
Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a member of the hard-right coalition, said that he had agreed to the delay in return for a promise to introduce the legislation during the following parliamentary session.
The proposal to increase parliamentary oversight of the judiciary is opposed by those who see it as a threat to democracy and have organised massive demonstrations against it. Far-right football supporters have promised protests in opposition to the legislation.
The leader of the national trade union Histadrut called for a nationwide strike to halt the implementation of the judicial reform, which resulted in the cancellation of flights from Ben Gurion Airport and the planned closure of seaports, banks, hospitals, and medical facilities.
“We have not known such days of external threats coalescing while a storm is brewing at home,” said Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, chief of army staff, on Monday.
Opponents view the revamp as eroding legal checks and balances and posing a threat to Israel’s democracy, despite the government’s claims that it is necessary to rein in activist judges and create a proper balance between the elected government and the judiciary.
The revamp must proceed, according to Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, exposing the conflicts within Netanyahu’s cabinet. We won’t allow them to steal our voice or our country, Smotrich vowed as he urged followers to participate in a demonstration.
Yariv Levin, the justice minister in charge of the proceedings, asserted that as a supporter of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, he would respect whatever choice the prime minister made.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators, many of them carrying the blue and white Israeli flags that have come to symbolise the demonstrations, returned to the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as parliament passed a vote of confidence in the government.
