JUDICIAL REFORM FAVORED BY LARGE NUMBER OF ISRAELIS

Hundreds of Thousands of Israelis March to Support Netanyahu’s Judicial Reforms

 

By Joel B. Pollak

 

Breitbart

April 27, 2023

Right-wing Israelis attend a rally in support of plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to overhaul the judicial system, outside the Knesset, Israel’s parliament in Jerusalem, Thursday, April 27, 2023.

 

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis turned out Thursday evening in Jerusalem to march in support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial reforms, in answer to similar protests by the opposition in Tel Aviv.

 

 

Right-wing Israelis attend a rally in support of plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to overhaul the judicial system, outside the Knesset, Israel’s parliament in Jerusalem, Thursday, April 27, 2023.

For weeks, left-wing protesters have mounted demonstrations — and blocked traffic — to raise objections to the reforms, though most are well within the norms of democratic practice in other countries, including the U.S.

Their protests have earned international attention, adding to pressure on the government. President Joe Biden has said he will not meet with Netanyahu, the country’s democratically-elected leader, because of the reforms.

On Thursday, however, the country’s normally quiescent right-wing voters  — who prefers to raise their voices in the ballot box, rather than on the streets — turned out for what was billed as a “million-person march.”

 

 

Far right party supporters, hold Israeli flags, gather to demonstration of support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu near the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem on April 27, 2023.

 

Estimates of the actual size of the rally have varied, from 200,000 to 600,000. Nevertheless, it was a strong show of force from Netanyahu’s supporters, who have felt overlooked by the media and the political class.

As Eliot Kaufman noted this week in the Wall Street Journal, Israel has become more politically conservative over the 75 years of its history, but the judicial has remained staunchly leftist, producing the tensions today.

Though the country was considered to be on the precipice of internal conflict a few weeks ago, conservative author David Hazony, writing in the Jewish Journal, suggested there is hope for a new constitutional accord.