Opponents of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who are protesting against his government’s judicial reforms are planning to block access to Ben-Gurion Airport after blocking the seaport of Haifa on Monday.
They are also planning to protest a Fourth of July observance held by the U.S. embassy at the sculpture garden of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem — an attempt to create additional strain on the U.S.-Israel relationship.
Netanyahu’s government has been seeking to reduce the role of Israel’s judiciary, which is the most powerful in the democratic world, relative to the other branches of government. Many of the reforms parallel existing practice in the U.S. and other democracies. After massive protests in the spring, Netanyahu agreed to postpone the reforms to allow time for compromise. But the opposition parties have refused to reach a deal.
In response, Netanyahu is proceeding with the first and least controversial of the reforms — one that would prevent the Supreme Court from overruling policies that it finds “unreasonable.” Though even former Chief Justice Aharon Barak, responsible for Israel’s judicial “revolution” in the 1990s, said he found that reform acceptable, Israel’s opposition has mobilized to shut down the country, as opposition leaders have threatened.
The Jerusalem Post reported:
The State of Israel girded itself for disruptive protests against the judicial reform on Monday, with protesters blocking the Haifa Port in the morning and a large contingent of demonstrators expected at Ben Gurion airport at 5:30 p.m.
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Protesters marched elsewhere in Haifa, at the city’s Independence square. In Jerusalem, a protest is expected at 6:00 pm against Netanyahu and other senior official guests at the Israel Museum’s sculpture garden at a United States independence day celebration organized by the US embassy.
Protests were announced in the wake of the resumption of reform legislation last Sunday, which had been frozen by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in late March.
President Joe Biden has refused to meet with Netanyahu since he won last year’s elections, largely over the issue of judicial reform — though Biden himself has considered radical reforms such as “packing” the Supreme Court.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.