July 10 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Several demonstrators have been evicted this Monday from the Knesset or Israeli Parliament when they tried to protest against the processing of the so-called law of reasonableness, part of the contested judicial reform promoted by the Government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Knesset security agents have forcibly removed the protesters by dragging several of them on the ground to move them away from the plenary session of the chamber, which could approve the initiative on Monday at first reading, reports ‘The Times of Israel’.
The speaker of the Knesset, Amir Ohana, has praised the work of the agents to prevent “a gang of criminals from disrupting the plenary session of the Knesset.”
Outside, around the parliamentary headquarters, demonstrators have gathered to protest the measure, questioned for limiting the ability of the Supreme Court to review government decisions and thus damaging the division of powers.
The president of the Constitution, Legislation and Justice Commission, Simcha Rothman, has instead defended a “balanced” and “responsible” law, which has provoked protests from opposition deputies. Three deputies from the centrist opposition party Yesh Atid have been expelled from the plenary session due to interruption.
The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had defended in a video published before the vote that this initiative to eliminate “reasonableness” “is not the end of democracy, but reinforces it.”
The Government has resumed the processing by parts of the judicial reform proposal while negotiations with the opposition are suspended. Netanyahu’s allies defend their legitimacy to process the judicial reform based on their parliamentary majority, while the mobilizations and protests that began 27 weeks ago demand their total withdrawal.
In addition, a new protest has been called for Tuesday to force the Executive to reverse the reform. “It has to be a mobilization the like of which has never been seen in Israel, on Tuesday, the first of the three votes in full session of the law that would prevent the courts from exercising a judicial review of the reasonableness of the government’s decisions,” have highlighted the conveners.
