March 18 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Some 260,000 people have returned to the streets of Israel for one more Saturday for the 11th consecutive week to protest against the controversial judicial reform promoted by the Government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The most important mobilization has been one more week in Tel Avivi, with 175,000 people chanting slogans such as “Israel is not Iran yet”, reports Channel 13 television, citing the company Crowd Solutions.
Several streets are already blocked by the protesters, such as Kaplan street, Ibn Gvirol street or Menachem Begin street. Among the speakers this Saturday are Yaakov Frenkel, Guy Rolnick or Eyal Naveh.
Protesters have tried to block Tel Aviv’s Ayalon highway again. The Police have used water cannons to evict the activists, equipped with Israeli flags, and there are several detainees.
Government supporters have also mobilized and groups of hooded men have been seen confronting protesters in Tel Aviv. In other places there have been reports of stones or eggs being thrown at protesters and a man has been detained for ramming his car into protesters in Herzliya.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid has been at the demonstration in the city of Ashdod, while Labor Party leader Merav Michaeli is in Kfar Saba. There have also been protests in Jerusalem –10,000 attendees–, Ramat HaSharon, Haifa and Rehovot. There are 20,000 protesters in Netanya and 20,000 more adding Herzliya and Raanana. In total, the total number of protesters outside Tel Aviv is estimated at 85,000.
This Saturday the main novelty is the participation for the first time of Bedouin groups, thousands of them in Beersheba, in the Negev, with slogans such as “This is our home”, “The same rights and democracy for all” or “Collaboration between Jews and arabs”. A total of 5,000 protesters are estimated in Beersheba.
PARLIAMENTARY PROCESSING
Meanwhile, the text of the judicial reform faces a decisive week since other norms are also being processed that will allow Prime Minister Netanyahu and other members of the Government to avoid their judicial problems.
The judicial reform will undergo its second and third reading despite criticism, which denounces that the Government would assume absolute control over the Judiciary, which would also be tied hand and foot to question the laws approved in the Knesset or Israeli Parliament.
The hope of the protesters is the possibility that from the very coalition led by Netanyahu the most controversial points of the norm will be softened.
