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PALESTINE

Sat 26 Aug 2023 8:57 pm - Jerusalem Time

For the 34th week in a row: Demonstrations renewed against the Netanyahu government

Saturday evening, the protest demonstrations against the government of Benjamin Netanyahu and its plan to weaken the judiciary were renewed, for the 34th week in a row.


Demonstrations took place in dozens of cities and towns, including Tel Aviv and Haifa. This week, the demonstrations focused on the failure of the Israeli government to deal with the rampant crime in Palestinian cities and towns within the 48 territories.


Tens of thousands participated in a demonstration that started from Habima Square in the center of Tel Aviv, to the main protest headquarters on Kaplan Street, and a number of them carried coffins with the number of victims of crimes committed in Palestinian society within the 48 territories since the beginning of this year.


During the weekly demonstrations against the plan to weaken the "judiciary", the organizers of the protests touched on various issues related to women's rights in Israeli society, the disruption of the Tel Aviv light rail on Saturdays, and other issues.


A mass demonstration was also organized at the "Horef" junction in Haifa, the "Karkur" junction in Pardes Hana, Nahf, Basma Tib'oun, Ness Ziona, Herzliya, Kfar Saba and others.


During the demonstration at the Karkur junction, opposition leader Yair Lapid criticized the extremist so-called "minister of national security" Itamar Ben Gvir, vowing to continue working against the Israeli "extremist government".


"I saw Ben Gvir on TV, and I heard him," Lapid said. "He is a pathetic racist, and a complete failure... He is harmful to Israel's image, to the judicial system, to values, and the prime minister does not condemn his statements because he relies on him."


He added, "The Israeli majority will defeat the government of extremists. This is a large and overwhelming majority, the millions of Israelis who say to the government: We will not abandon our country and the future of our children."


The organizers of the protests said, in a statement before the start of the demonstrations, that "Israel is bleeding, the economy is collapsing, and in this government of destruction, they continue the race towards turning Israel into a religious dictatorship, incitement, exclusion, neglect, and trampling on the values of equality and justice."


They continued: "This government is illegitimate, and Israel can only be saved through firm and uncompromising protest. We will fight it together until we are victorious."


On July 24, the Israeli Knesset voted, in the second and third readings, on a bill abolishing the reasonableness argument, thus becoming an effective law despite widespread internal objections.


The law would prevent Israeli courts, including the Supreme Court, from applying what is known as the "standard of reasonableness" to decisions made by elected officials.


The law abolishing the reasonableness argument is one of the 8 bills put forward by the Israeli government as part of its plan to weaken the judiciary.


The Netanyahu government seeks to make radical amendments to the legal and judicial systems, to almost completely eliminate the Supreme Court's authority for judicial review, and to give the government an automatic majority in the judges' selection committee, which a wide segment of Israelis sees as "targeting democracy and undermining the judicial system."


Since the plan was announced in early January, tens of thousands of Israelis have demonstrated weekly to denounce the government that Netanyahu formed in December and its plan to weaken the "judiciary".

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For the 34th week in a row: Demonstrations renewed against the Netanyahu government