Protests continue for 11th week in Israel against a controversial bill

According to local media, the Israeli company Crowd Solutions estimated that some 175,000 demonstrators were present at the main rally in Tel Aviv, about 10,000 people in Jerusalem in front of the president’s residence and another 85,000 gathered in other cities across the country, bringing the total number of demonstrators to about 260,000.

The right-wing, extreme-righted, and ultra-orthodox parties that make up Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition have accelerated a package of reforms aimed at weakening the High Court of Justice.If successful, the reforms will hand giving political leaders the power to override Supreme Court decisions as well as to decide all judicial appointments.

However, the coalition’s leaders announced on Monday that they would report all reform-related bills at least until the end of April, with the exception of the one that would change the makeup of the commission that selects judges so that the coalition could choose the justices for the Supreme Court.

The coalition also needed to keep pushing for legislation to support Netanyahu, prevent the attorney general and the Supreme Court from ordering him to recuse himself due to a conflict of interest, and allow him to keep funds from his deceased cousin that the court ordered him to return. It also needed to support Aryeh Deri, the leader of Shas, and allow the politician who has been expelled from office three times to be reinstated as a minister despite the court’s ruling.

Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies believe that the reform is necessary to re-establish a balance of power between the elected representatives and the Supreme Court, which they consider to be politicised. The government’s plan opponents believe that by concentrating power in Netanyahu and his legislative majority, it jeopardises the democratic character of the State of Israel and could help overturn a possible conviction of Benjamin Netanyahu, who is still on trial for corruption in several cases.

Business leaders, Nobel laureates in econonic and other prominent security officials have spoken out against the reform; reservists in elite units. In recent weeks, hundreds of reservists have published open letters expressing their doubts about continuing to serve if the government’s plan is adopted. President Joe Biden has called on Benjamin Netanyahu to find a “compromise” on the controversial reform of Israel’s judicial system.

On Wednesday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog presented a compromise draft of the reform bill, which was accepted by the leaders of the opposition parties but immediately rejected by the ruling coalition.