By Mikaela Russell, Staff Writer
On Sunday, March 26, hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens took over the streets revolting against Israel’s newly re-elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempts to change the way the country’s judicial system works.
In response to Netanyahu’s dismissal of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday, a political mobilization took place, including a countrywide strike and widespread shutdowns around the country. Even Gallant had spoken out against the judicial reform. Israeli cities were paralyzed by demonstrations. In a show of discontent, people stopped leaving airports, campuses and malls. Now the question is whether Netanyahu’s coalition can hold and whether the delay would affect the chances of the judicial overhaul passing.
Back in November 2022, he was re-elected for a record setting fifth time. He leads the most right-wing coalition in Israel’s history, and he promised to govern for all Israelis, no matter how he felt about politics. But instead, his planned changes have led to large-scale protests that haven’t been seen since the country was founded 75 years ago.
The Israeli government has been trying to weaken the High Court’s ability to act as a check on the Knesset by making major structural changes to the institution. A number of measures have been proposed that would make it easier for the Knesset to overturn the Supreme Court’s decisions by a simple majority vote. Moreover, it would strip the attorney general of critical authorities while vesting them in a committee of nine government appointees responsible for selecting judges. Protestors feel that these, and similar reforms, would undermine the independence of the court in a legislative system with few additional safeguards
In response, verklempt natives of the country took defiance toward his illiberal, ultranationalist regime, following the two months of widespread protests in Israel over a proposed package of judicial reforms by the Netanyahu government that would undermine the independence of the country’s highest court and pave the way for unfettered majoritarian control.
Other former leaders of Israel have warned that fascism could take over, and now their voices are getting louder. Former prime minister and one of the country’s most decorated military leaders Ehud Barak, has been joining the protests, as have Yair Lapid, a former prime minister and leader of the opposition, and Tzipi Livni, a former minister of justice. “In Israel, nobody, not even the prime minister, will be above the law,” Livni said back in January.
However, Netanyahu and his allies have been against the protesters for months and have not changed their minds.
“The extreme and dangerous group that plans [the protests] just wants to burn down the house and make chaos in the country,” Netanyahu said in early March.
Netanyahu is currently on trial for alleged corruption. He denies the charges, but they have been a problem for him in politics for the past few years. People have thought that these accusations are why he has been trying to change the Israeli judiciary in a big way, which would weaken its stance on independence.
Junior economics major Paula Espinosa stated that she has been following along with news on the protests in Israel since 2021.
“I’ve been an activist basically my whole life, I come from a family of immigrants, and my parents have always taught me to stand up for my rights and independence,” Espinosa said.“It’s devastating to hear what their prime minister has planned, it’s almost like he betrayed his own country and their beliefs, many of these citizens have fought for what is right, and for him to get power hungry and decide to stick his neck out and say I hold the power over everyone, I’m the one who gets a final say isn’t right at all. You’re citizens, the people who voted for your re-election, that’s who gets a final say.”
Sophomore international relations major Kendall Morris, also shared opinions on the situation.
“No, quite frankly I think Israel government is corrupt. How do you preach about equality when you discriminate against your Palestinian citizens and force them to move to the West Bank region? Especially when their population is almost half of your country, yet they live in horrible conditions and Israeli authorities have unlawfully killed over a hundred palestinians. Israel’s whole government system is messy and I believe filled with propaganda.”
Morris refers to the killing of 151 Palestinians in West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2022 after protesting past incursions in the region.
Junior communications major Marleigh Colson chimed into the discussion on Prime Minister Netanyahu’s attempts to overhaul the judiciary system.
“There is no way, no matter how important or powerful you are, you can go against basically your whole country and threaten to take away their independence, and successfully get away with it, like that just can’t happen. It’s the same situation with our country with the attempts to overturn Roe vs. Wade. You can’t really assume a collective of women are gonna allow you to take away their feminine rights, after tirelessly fighting for it, you’re gonna face an overwhelming amount of backlash, and that’s the same thing Israel’s prime minister is facing,” Colson said.
Colson feels that the protests show solidarity and resistance among the people of Israel.
“No citizen that enjoys their freedom will allow that, especially since you have 600,000 people shutting down the streets, my mind can’t even wrap around the thought of that many people shouting at the top of their lungs for justice, sorry but not sorry Prime Minister, it’s never gonna happen, even if you fire every single official in office,” Colson added.
Colson spoke about the social and political issues facing the U.S., and how the state of our nation compares with Israel.
“The U.S. has some tough issues to crack down on. Our country urgently needs to address the ongoing problems many of us sadly face. Officials in both Israel and in the U.S. are often ignorant to our complaints and both countries suffer in their own way, tragically, because no one wants to answer us, but both countries are seriously corrupt and need to take culpability. It’s insane to think that we voted for these people to be in office and they’re handling the critical issues like customer service. No one has the patience to wait anymore, and citizens in each country are tired of the injustice and won’t rest until it’s accounted for,” Colson said.
The vote to overhaul the judiciary won’t happen until at least April 30, or even later. What this means for protests in the meantime is not clear. Even if Israel’s internal problems get better, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is extremely hostile, and Palestinian resistance has led officials to warn of a third uprising or intifada.
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