Netanyahu himself has not yet commented on his further plans. A proposed television statement was postponed. A nationwide protest strike, declared on Monday, quickly spread. Strikers have, among other things, flattened the international Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv.
The division runs right through the ranks of the government. On Saturday, Defense Secretary Yoav Gallant was the first to openly oppose the reform plans. He was fired by Netanyahu on Sunday, sparking violent street protests that continued through the night. Monday reported The New York Times that Likud’s largest coalition partner, Shas, was also hesitating. The leader of this ultra-Orthodox party, Aryeh Deri, personally urged the plans to be frozen, according to the newspaper.
Other members of Netanyahu’s far-right cabinet, however, strongly demanded that he push through the plans. Justice Minister Yariv Levin threatened to resign if Netanyahu bowed to the protests. The far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also announced that he would resign if the reform plans were called off. The ministers’ inflexibility has fueled predictions that the Netanyahu government will not survive this crisis.
Netanyahu was due to make a statement Monday morning, but Israeli television announced shortly before he was due to speak that he had postponed his statement. It was unclear whether the prime minister would issue a statement later on Monday.
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Michel Maas is foreign editor of de Volkskrant. Previously he was a war reporter and correspondent in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.
Demonstrations continued on Monday, including in Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel Aviv, and outside the doors of the Knesseth where the reforms would be discussed. The rest of the country also slowly came to a standstill due to a nationwide strike, which was declared by the national trade union center Histadrut.
The first victim of the strike was Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, where no planes could depart anymore. Airport workers’ union president Pinchas Idan called on Netanyahu to suspend reform plans at least until after the Easter holiday. Idan is a leading member of Netanyahu’s own Likud party.
The doctors’ union announced that it would shut down the entire health system. Later, local authorities and lawyers also announced that they had stopped working.
The proposed reforms have deeply divided Israel. Since the announcement, on January 4, there have been large demonstrations every week for three months against the plans, which would curtail the power of the Supreme Court and give parliament more say in the appointment of judges. The demonstrators see the change as an attack on democracy.
State security
Defense Minister Gallant said in a short televised speech on Saturday that the dissension had already penetrated the Israeli army, and that it was a direct threat to the security of the state. The internal discord made the troops less combat ready, Gallant said, and he no longer wanted to take that on. That statement would lead to his resignation a day later.
President Herzog tweeted an urgent appeal to the government on Monday morning: “For the sake of the people of Israel…I call on you to stop the legislative process immediately.”
The legislative process continued in the Knesseth on Monday morning. In a ‘stormy session’, parliament’s Constitutional Committee approved a crucial piece of bills for consideration. The opposition chanted ‘shame, shame’ and a member of parliament demonstratively hung an Israeli flag over the shoulders of the committee chairman, Reuters reports.
