Thousands of people have taken to the streets of the main cities of Israel to protest after the removal of Gallant
26 (EUROPA PRESS)
The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has dismissed this Sunday his Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, who on Saturday publicly advocated pausing the process of the controversial judicial reform to give room for dialogue.
Netanyahu has published a brief statement announcing Gallant’s departure in which he explains that he has lost confidence in him because “he has turned behind the government’s back,” reports the Israeli press. Netanyahu is on an official visit to the UK.
Gallant is still a deputy from Netanyahu’s Likud party, but it is not known if he will continue to be part of the government, the result of a complex balance of forces between the right-wing and far-right parties that make up the coalition that supports Netanyahu.
Following the news, opposition leader Yair Lapid criticized Netanyahu for dismissing Gallant “only because he warned him of the threat posed to Israel’s security” by his judicial reform.
“It is an anti-Zionist government that goes against national security and ignores the warnings of all those responsible for the security apparatus,” he argued.
“The prime minister of Israel is a danger to the security of the State of Israel (…). Netanyahu can throw out Gallant, but he cannot throw out reality and he cannot throw out the people of Israel, who are rising up against the madness of the coalition”, has added.
PROTESTS
Following Gallant’s dismissal, thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of major Israeli cities to protest the decision.
In Tel Aviv, protesters have blocked the Kaplan crossing and have reoccupied the Ayalon highway, the usual scene of clashes between activists and police.
In Jerusalem, Beersheba and Haifa there have also been protests with thousands of attendees. There has also been a concentration of about 300 people in front of Gallant’s house to express their support, reports the newspaper ‘Yedioth Aharonoth’.
Reservists have concentrated on Sunday morning next to the house of the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, in the settlement of Kiryat Arba, in Hebron, West Bank. Two of them were arrested after trying to enter Ben-Gvir’s house.
SUCCESSOR
Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter seems the favorite to succeed Gallant. Dichter was director of the secret service for the interior of Israel and the Palestinian territories, the Shin Bet.
However, Dichter has also raised his doubts about the risks to the cohesion and security of the country that going ahead with the judicial reform process entails. Economy Minister Nir Barkat could also fill the post.
Gallant broke on Saturday the monolithic defense of the Israeli government of the controversial judicial reform promoted by Netanyahu and that has plunged the country into a deep political crisis due to opposition protests, which denounces a threat to the division of powers.
“I have never seen the level of hatred and pain that I see now. The division in society reaches as far as the Army and this poses an immediate and tangible danger to the security of the State. I am not going to give in on this. We need to change the judiciary, but “Important changes must be made through dialogue. The legislative process must be stopped,” Gallant said in a televised address.
Gallant has stressed that “Israel’s security is the goal of my life.” “Even now I am willing to take the risk and pay the price. The threats that surround us are immense, near and far,” he pointed out at the beginning of his speech. In recent weeks, Gallan himself has maintained contacts with military commanders, he explained. “I’m concerned about what I’ve heard,” he said.
The National Security Minister, the far-right Itamar Ben Gvir, immediately called for Gallant’s removal of Netanyahu. “I ask the prime minister to remove Gallant, who was appointed with the votes of the right, but who has yielded to the pressure of those who have threatened rejection (to serve voluntarily in the Armed Forces) and tries to stop this important reform “, he snapped.