NEW YORK — Hundreds of American and Israeli Jews demonstrated against the government’s plans for judicial reform in Israel outside the New York City consulate on Monday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the coalition had decided to pause his legislative campaign.
The protesters, draped in Israeli flags and holding umbrellas to shield themselves from the drizzle, held up signs that read “opposition is needed”, “dictatorship awaits us” and “Democracy = the end of the occupancy”.
This rally was the latest in a series of protests that have taken place in the region in solidarity with the massive demonstrations that have been organized throughout Israel.
Rallies that also targeted supporters in the United States of the plan to overhaul the justice system in Israel as well as members of the Israeli coalition visiting the country. Discontent has been expressed in a growing way in the country and the demonstrations have redoubled in scale in recent weeks.
Hundreds of protesters, speaking in English and Hebrew, marched out of the rally area that had been sealed off by police in midtown Manhattan, blocking the sidewalk across from the consulate.
Speakers, including activists, rabbis and elected officials, issued messages calling for more pressure to be exerted against the Israeli government’s plan to reform the Israeli government’s justice system, despite the announcement that it had been suspended hours earlier , by Netanyahu.
American protesters focused more on Palestinian rights than did the protest movement in Israel, and speakers and signs in New York repeatedly referred to the occupation in the West Bank.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, director of Truah, a major rabbinical organization, said the rally was held “in solidarity with Israelis who have been taking to the streets for three months, including taking to the streets in the middle of the night , last night “.
“We do not accept pathetic attempts at compromise,” she added, referring to Netanyahu’s decision to put judicial reform on hold.
“We are holding our ground and we are not going to stop protesting” until the legislation is finally scrapped, she added.
Jacobs also read a statement sent by a Jewish representative of the US House, Jerry Nadler, originally from New York City.
“The unprecedented protest movement sweeping Israel has shown the world that the Israeli people will not remain silent,” the statement said.
Netanyahu’s freezing of the legislation is “welcome”, he added, “but it is clear that Israel remains at a turning point”.
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine spoke in Hebrew, saying, “I want you all to know that I and many others here in New York are with you, we are with you.”
“To my friends, to my family in Israel, to all of you who are fighting for democratic values right now, who are fighting for equality, who are fighting for an independent and strong judiciary, know that I have your back; know that here in New York we have your back,” he added in English.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is Jewish, called the protests in Israel “a crucial move.”
“We will not allow the government of Netanyahu, [Bezalel] Smotrich et [d’Itamar] Ben Gvir drag us into the abyss,” he added, referring to two far-right government ministers.
“We are not going to haggle over a postponement of the vote against the establishment of Ben Gvir’s own armed police,” he noted. Netanyahu promised Ben Gvir a “national guard” unit on Monday, in exchange for the promise that the lawmaker would back a pause on judicial reform.
“We will continue to organize and continue to demand genuine Israeli democracy,” Lander said.
Protesters chanted in Hebrew the slogans ‘Democracy or revolt’, and ‘if there is no equality we will block Madison, you are playing with the wrong generation’ – echoing a slogan used by protesters in Tel Aviv when they announced they were going to block the Ayalon Freeway.
Two demonstrators held up hand-written signs: “Our hope is not yet lost” and “To be a free people in our land” – a tribute to Israel’s national anthem.
Asaf Zamir shortly after stepping down as consul general in protest, outside the Israeli consulate, in New York, March 26, 2023. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)
This rally was organized 24 hours after the Israeli consul-general in New York, Asaf Zamir, resigned in protest against the reform. He had met some of the same protesters on Sunday near the consulate, after announcing that he was leaving his post.
Also on Monday, protesters gathered in Princeton, New Jersey, next to a building where a conference by Ronen Shuval, a member of the right-wing Im Tirtzu organization and member of the Tikvah Fund organization, was taking place. who supported the justice system reform project.
Photos shared by the Israeli group UnXeptable, one of the organizers of the protest movement, show several dozen demonstrators near the room where Shuval was speaking.
The New England branch of the Israeli American Council also called for protests in Boston on Monday.
Rallies also took place every week on Sundays in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park, sometimes bringing together hundreds of participants.
