Thousands of Israeli protesters flooded the streets outside Israel’s Supreme Court in Jerusalem on Monday, a day before it hears a pivotal case against the curbing of the high court’s powers by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government.
Beating drums, waving blue-and-white Israeli flags and brandishing signs that said “Freedom” and “Hands off our Supreme Court!,” thousands of protesters from cities nationwide swarmed the main intersection outside the high court in a mass rally against the government’s deeply contentious judicial overhaul that has triggered one of the biggest domestic crises in Israeli history.
On Tuesday, all 15 of Israel’s Supreme Court justices will appear on the bench for the first time ever to hear appeals by rights groups and individuals against the first major part of the overhaul, which the the government pushed through parliament in July. The divisive law cancels the court’s ability to block government actions and appointments using the legal concept that they are “unreasonable.”
Mulitple hearings at the Supreme Court in the coming weeks put the country’s top justices in the unprecedented position of defending their own independence and ruling on their own fate.
The court faces massive public pressure to strike down the law and has an inherent interest in preserving its powers and independence. But if it does, Netanyahu’s government could ignore the ruling, setting the stage for a constitutional crisis over who has ultimate authority.
On Monday, hardline National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir released a video declaring himself “against surrender.”
“The reform is important for the state of Israel,” he said, rejecting compromise talks reportedly underway in the president’s house between Netanyahu and opposition party leader Benny Gantz. “Caving (to the opposition) at the president’s house means violating right-wing values.”
