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2025-03-27 Israel-Palestine-Jordan
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Thousands protest outside Knesset ahead of final votes on controversial judicial bill, but bill passed anyway
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Another day, another excuse for a leftywing anti-government protest. [IsraelTimes] Some opposition MKs join anti-overhaul protesters; rally organizers accuse government of ‘declaring war on the people’; bar association chief: ‘They won’t break democracy’
Thousands of people rallied outside the Knesset on Wednesday to protest against the government, continuing a recent wave of demonstrations, as inside the building politicians prepared for final votes on a controversial judicial bill that has further stoked outcry.
The bill, which will change the composition of the judicial selection committee, has drawn harsh criticism from opposition politicians, who say that it will significantly damage Israel’s democracy. It comes amid an already heated reaction to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to resume fighting in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response ...
and his moves to fire the head of the Shin Bet and attorney general.
Demonstrators marched through Jerusalem past the Supreme Court building to the Knesset. In the afternoon, some blocked Route 1 at the entrance to the capital, lighting flares on the road.
Demonstrations were also held in other parts of the country, including Tel Aviv.
Protest organizers said in a statement that the government "abandoned the hostages, is harming Israel’s security, and is passing aggressive and extreme legislation without batting an eyelid," a reference to those who were kidnapped during the devastating Hamas
 ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
-led invasion of southern Israel that opened the war.
The legislation debated in parliament would remove the two representatives of the Israel Bar Association currently on the nine-member Judicial Selection Committee, which makes all judicial appointments, and replace them with one lawyer to be directly chosen by the coalition and another chosen by the opposition.
Chair of the Israel Bar Association Amit Bahar spoke about the removal of the IBA seats on the judicial panel.
"They won’t break us, and they won’t break democracy," he told the rally. "We will petition against the law."
"This is a complete coup, which we warned of and against which we campaigned," Bahar said.
An opposition filibuster was expected to keep the Knesset session on the judicial bill going through the night and into Thursday.
Protesters outside the Knesset set up a mock "Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
i embassy" featuring multiple people in white robes fanning themselves with money as Arabic music played in the background, in reference to the investigation into allegedly illicit ties between Doha and the Prime Minister’s Office. One demonstrator used ropes to control the arms of a person wearing a Netanyahu mask as if he were a marionette.
"Welcome to the Qatari embassy in Jerusalem," they announced on a microphone.
The display was organized by Brothers in Arms, a prominent anti-government protest group.
"Firing the head of the Shin Bet in the middle of a war, in the midst of a significant security probe, and the attempt to push out the attorney general that opposed the firings is crossing a red line," the group said in a statement.
"Instead of focusing on the hostages and the war with Hamas, the Israeli government is busy with getting rid of anyone who tries to probe the dangerous ties between those around the prime minister and those funding the enemy, said Oren Shvial a leader of the Brothers.
Hebrew media reported Tuesday that Netanyahu was warned at least twice before the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, that the terror group’s military chief Muhammad Deif was appropriating funds provided by Qatar to Gaza with the premier’s approval.
According to near-identical reports by Channel 12 and the Kan public broadcaster, Netanyahu was warned in 2019 by then-Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman and again in 2020 by the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate.
Under Netanyahu, Israel allowed millions in Qatari funds to be transferred to Gaza since 2018, with the aim tof maintaining a fragile ceasefire with enclave’s Hamas rulers.
Several of Netanyahu’s top aides are currently under investigation over alleged financial ties with Qatar, which is one of the mediators in the ceasefire and hostage negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
There was a similar protest outside the Knesset on Tuesday.
The government fired Shin Bet head Ronen Bar last week with Netanyahu saying it was over his lack of trust in the security agency leader. Critics say the prime minister could now appoint a new spy chief who would close the probe into the Qatar ties.
The government is also moving to fire Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara who has repeatedly opposed coalition legislative moves, including the judicial appointments committee bill which is part of a wider judicial overhaul she also opposes.
‘Democracy isn’t in danger,’ Netanyahu tells Knesset in tirade against ‘deep state’
[IsraelTimes] ’The more Hamas persists in its refusal to release our hostages, the more powerful the pressure we will exert,’ says PM, threatening to seize territory in Gaza
“Israel has been and will remain a democracy,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told opposition lawmakers at the Knesset on Wednesday, pushing back against allegations that his government is systematically undermining the rule of law.
Netanyahu also appeared to endorse a harder line on Gaza than previously taken by his government, threatening to take control over territory in the coastal enclave to pressure Hamas to release the remaining Israeli hostages.
Slamming his fist on the podium, Netanyahu condemned “bullying,” “incitement,” and “violence against elected officials” while members of the opposition yelled and jeered at him during a so-called 40-signatures debate — a plenum discussion that the opposition can call once a month and that the prime minister is legally obliged to attend.
While the debate was officially called to discuss the rising crime rate in the Arab sector, much of the discussion was focused on the government’s recent moves to fire top officials and gain greater control over the judiciary, which have been slammed by critics as anti-democratic.
“Democracy isn’t in danger; the rule of bureaucrats is in danger. The deep state is in danger,” Netanyahu insisted, railing against a “small coterie of officials” who he alleged are working against the elected government.
Netanyahu, who has been in power since 2009 except for an 18-month period, has in recent weeks stepped up accusations that there is a “deep state” running the country that is out to thwart him, echoing political rhetoric from the US.
“In a democracy the people are sovereign, and the people demand that its free vote in the polling booths be practically carried out in decisions, appointments, policies,” he declared — adding that while the government does not have “unlimited power,” it “cannot be that the government has zero power… There must be a balance between the branches of government.”
Netanyahu’s critics say he is working to undermine the democratic checks and balances on his power.
Knesset passes contentious law to increase political control over judicial appointments
[IsraelTimes] The Knesset has passed the highly controversial bill to change the makeup of the judicial selection committee, which will greatly increase political power over the judicial appointments process in Israel.
The legislation removes the two representatives of the Israel Bar Association currently on the nine-member Judicial Selection Committee, which makes all judicial appointments, and replaces them with one lawyer to be directly chosen by the coalition and another chosen by the opposition.
It also gives political representatives from the coalition, opposition and judiciary on the nine-member Judicial Selection Committee veto power over lower court appointments, as opposed to the current system where no side has a veto. And it removes any influence of the three judges on the committee over appointments to the Supreme Court while granting the coalition and opposition vetoes.
Critics say the bill, which will only take effect in the next Knesset, will politicize judicial appointments.
The debate on the bill ahead of the final votes in back-to-back second and third readings lasted through the night, due to the unprecedented 71,023 objections the opposition filed against the legislation.
The opposition boycotted the final votes on the bill, with MKs leaving the plenum as the coalition voted. 
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Posted by trailing wife 2025-03-27 2025-03-27 05:10||
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