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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

‘Not the time for a time-out’: Mass anti-overhaul protests held for 23rd week

2023-06-11

[IsraelTimes] Smaller turnout as 74,000-80,000 attend main Tel Aviv rally ahead of key vote on judicial selection panel; Hungary protest leader: Don’t let democracy erode like in my home country.

The Biden administration’s covert war on Israel’s Netanyahu government continues. The Movement for Quality Government in Israel (MQG), one of the key organizations protesting against the coalition’s judicial overhaul program, is Antifa, and its cadres are paid agents of the U.S. State Department, happily demanding the complete overthrow of Israeli democracy to achieve their demands for the rearrangement of Israel’s homegrown system. MQG was previously known as V15 (for Victory 15, 2015 being the last election Bibi won against the will of a Democratic president), both names being fig leaves for its true identity as the Israeli branch of the Washington, DC-based OneVoice Movement founded by Progressive multi-billionaire Daniel Lubetzky in 2002 as an international “grassroots” front of his PeaceWorks Foundation to drive Israel to fulfill his vision for the region without him bothering to become a citizen. The US State Department gave V15 millions of dollars under President Obama, and more in recent years.

Weekly protests against the government’s intention to overhaul the justice system took place for the 23rd week in a row Saturday night, days ahead of a crucial Knesset vote on the makeup of the key Judicial Selection Committee.

Israeli television estimated that between 74,000 and 80,000 attended the main rally on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv, while organizers claimed around 100,000, alongside thousands of others in some 150 locations around the country, kicking off the 23rd week of regular protests against the currently suspended government plan. Last week’s Tel Aviv rally drew an estimated 95,000-140,000 people, and previous weeks saw some 200,000 people gather.

Many of the night’s demonstrations, including in Tel Aviv, began with a silent commemoration for the latest victims of a spiraling crime wave in the Arab community, which has claimed the lives of 102 people since the beginning of the year, ten in just the past three days.

Green on green — just a violent culture thingy having nothing to do with the War on Terror, nor the American Democratic Party-sponsored war on Bibi neither. Heaven only knows why Antifa feels a need to preen itself on helping the Arab-Israelis mourn, since they aren’t interested in the protests.

During the main rally at Kaplan Street, protesters held signs reading "dead-class citizen," which in Hebrew sounds similar to "second-class citizen," in reference to the Arab community.

After the scheduled speeches were over, a small group of demonstrators headed to the Ayalon Highway and briefly blocked southbound traffic on the city’s main thoroughfare. Police cleared the protesters after a short while.

In Haifa, former prime minister Ehud Barak

...who should be ashamed of himself for joining in this anti-democratic activity after having participated in Israeli democracy for so long...

called for a non-~~violent~~ mostly peaceful civil uprising against the government.

"We haven’t won the battle yet. This is not the time for a time-out. We must not fall into illusions. We must intensify the protest and end the negotiations immediately," Barak said, referring to ongoing coalition-opposition compromise talks under the auspices of President Isaac Herzog.

"The protest must intensify and move into a civil uprising. Non-~~violent~~ mostly peaceful civil disobedience," he added.

Anti-democracy in action.

Hungarian protest leader Katalin Törley

....featured on the Amnesty International website as an anti-government activist since 2016, she is by trade a high school teacher of French. So why have the organizers brought in a foreigner to what is being touted as a spontaneous patriotic Israeli grassroots upwelling of sentiment against the democratically elected Israeli government?

spoke at a protest in Modiin and likened the erosion of democracy in her home country to what Israeli protesters warn the government is trying to do in the Jewish state.

"Almost one million of the 10 million Hungarians left Hungary," she said.

...probably for economic opportunity elsewhere, as has been happening throughout Eastern Europe since the Berlin Wall fell, but do go on...

"Many grandparents only see their grandchildren on a screen. Orban’s relatives and friends win government tenders, and food prices have increased by more than 40 percent in the past year. Do not let that happen to you."

On Wednesday, the Knesset will vote to appoint two politicians to the nine-member Judicial Selection Committee, which is chaired by Justice Minister Yariv Levin of Likud. The coalition has threatened to take both spots on the panel, breaking with tradition.

Opposition leaders have said that if the coalition does so, it will signal the end of the compromise talks.

The makeup of the judicial selection panel is central to the coalition’s ongoing efforts to greatly increase political control over the judiciary. A key bill in the overhaul plan would reshape the committee and hand the government an automatic majority, giving it the power to determine most judicial appointments.

That bill is on the cusp of being passed into law, and can be brought for its final, back-to-back votes in the Knesset plenum at a moment’s notice. However,
a clean conscience makes a soft pillow...
such action is almost sure to lead to a resumption of intense public opposition, the likes of which was last seen before the legislation was frozen.

Or not, as the case may be. Quite possibly public interest is fading as the citizenry tires of the usual Antifa antics disrupting their lives. I vote that Bibi’s government pushes forward with the thing by way of a live experiment to see who is right.

The judicial overhaul legislation has been frozen since late March, when Netanyahu said he would halt the plans to allow for talks with the opposition, aimed at finding a broadly accepted compromise for judicial reform. But months of talks have not produced a breakthrough, and pressure has increased within the coalition to resume the legislative push.

Netanyahu said last month, following the passage of the state budget, that "of course" the overhaul was now back on the government’s agenda. Later that day, however, he added: "We will of course continue with our efforts to arrive at a broad consensus agreement, to the extent possible, on the issue of judicial reform."

Critics say the overhaul will sap the High Court of Justice of its power to act as a check and balance against parliament, eroding Israel’s democratic character and leaving minorities unprotected. Supporters say the legislation is needed to rein in what they see as an over-intrusive court system.

Posted by:trailing wife

#2 Sounds like a lot of people who reside in the overlap of the "anti-Semitic" and "riot tourist" circles of the Venn diagram.

Posted by: M. Murcek 2023-06-11 07:48

#1 Great in-line commentary.

Posted by: Besoeker 2023-06-11 07:15

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