Israeli reservists and veterans start march for judicial reform

TEL AVIV, 8 Feb. (DPA/EP) –

Hundreds of reservists and veterans of Israel have taken to the streets this Wednesday to start a round of march, which will last until Friday, in protest of the criticized judicial reform.

The march has started in Latrun, a town located west of Jerusalem, and is expected to end on Friday in front of the Supreme Court in Jerusalem. Among the attendees, the former deputy chief of the General Staff Yair Golan stands out, who has also called for civil protest.

“This bad government will not understand that we are serious,” said Golan, who lamented that, so far, the protests against the judicial reform have not been forceful enough, and has advocated “paralyzing traffic” and “stopping the job”.

“Then this terrible government will understand that we are fighting for our land,” remarked the former deputy chief of the Israeli General Staff and a member of the left-wing liberal party Meretz, who has been left out of Parliament after not reaching enough votes in the elections of the last November.

Since the beginning of the year, thousands of Israelis have demonstrated every week against the plan of the right-wing religious government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Minister of Justice, Yariv Levin, has shown himself against paralyzing “not even a minute” a judicial reform that has aroused much criticism.

Said judicial reform, which will expand ‘de facto’ the Government’s control over the judiciary, has led to protests in the streets and also to more or less direct complaints from some senior officials such as Israel’s Attorney General, Gali Baharav-Miara, or the president of the Supreme Court, Esther Hayut.

Israel’s coalition government, led by Netanyahu’s Likud and made up of various far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties, has tried to push through laws that would allow Parliament to override Supreme Court decisions, as well as tip the balance in the Judicial Appointments Committee in favor of representatives politicians.