IN PICS | Protests rock Israel after parliament approves controversial judicial reform clause

Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, on Monday (July 24) passed a key clause of an overarching judicial reform bill that seeks to curtail the powers of the Supreme Court. This comes despite 29 weeks of protests, mass public opposition, and some international criticism. 

The “reasonableness bill,” which sought to strip the top court of the power to declare government decisions unreasonable is just one part of a broader package of reforms to Israel's judicial system by the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government, which opponents and critics say threaten democracy and freedom. 

Tens of thousands of Israelis had entered Jerusalem, on Saturday ahead of the vote on Monday. The protesters had been walking from Tel Aviv on Tuesday and plan to rally outside the Israeli parliament ahead of the Sunday debate and subsequent vote. 

Marchers have been setting up camps overnight and also met with locals who offer them food and drinks on their way to Jerusalem. Once they arrived the they set up tents near the Knesset in Jerusalem over the weekend. 

The vote concluded 30 hours of continuous plenum debate, which began on Sunday morning. 

In the parliament, some lawmakers were seen scrambling for a last-minute attempt to amend the bill or to come to a broader agreement between Netanyahu's party Likud party and the opposition failed. 

This comes after two proposals of comprise, one by a union leader and the other by President Isaac Herzog, were rejected. 

The key clause was passed with 64 votes in favour — mainly by the Members of the Knesset (MKs) from the ruling coalition— and zero against it, as the entire 56-member opposition boycotted the vote in protest.

Some of the opposition lawmakers shouted "For shame!"  and abandoned the session. 

Demonstrations against the amendment began early in the day with police dragging away protesters who had chained themselves to posts and blocked the road outside parliament.

The protests on Monday marked the 29th week of the anti-overhaul protests. 

Demonstrations gathered momentum throughout the day, with protesters voicing their opposition outside the parliament building in Jerusalem.

"It's a sad day for Israeli democracy... We're going to fight back," said Inbar Orpaz (36), speaking among the crowd outside parliament, reported Reuters. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was earlier admitted to a hospital for an emergency pacemaker implantation, also participated in the voting. This was after surgery went smoothly and he had said that he planned to be out in time to vote on Monday.

Later on Monday, as protests and anger flared over the vote, Netanyahu justified the move as a "necessary democratic step."

"We passed the amendment on reasonability so that the elected government can carry out policy in line with the decision of the majority of the citizens of the country," said the Israeli PM, in a televised address.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid (not in the image) slammed the hard-right Netanyahu government for abusing its power. He promised to petition the High Court of Justice on Tuesday (July 25) against the freshly passed law.

“This is a complete breaking of the rules of the game,” Lapid was quoted by the Times of Israel newspaper as saying from his Yesh Atid party’s Knesset conference room.

“The government and coalition can choose what direction the state goes in, but it can’t decide the character of the state.” 
 

Protesters were blasted by police water cannons who were said to have been demonstrating peaceably in front of the Israeli parliament during the vote.

"Shame on you, this is the most polite protest ever," cried out one protester, as quoted by the Times of Israel. 

One protester also got injured after being struck in the head by a police water cannon.

The person later identified as Amir Schnabel, a 57-year-old from Tel Aviv told the Israeli newspaper that he was hit on the side of the head by a water cannon stream during the protest outside the Knesset, on Monday morning. 

The protests across Israel intensified in the evening. Dozens of protesters as well as one person who plowed through anti-overhaul demonstrators blocking roads were arrested.

Thousands of protesters marched onto the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv where the police also fired the water canon in a failed bid to disperse the demonstrators. 

In southern Israel's kibbutz of Hetzarim, a fight broke out between pro-overhaul protesters and the residents of the area where the town's security squad fired his gun in the air and detained seven people. 

On Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Street, which has been the site of the main weekly anti-government protests, multiple bonfires were lit, as the large number of officers backed by water cannons and mounted police failed to move the protesters, mainly young Israelis, away.

Local media reports estimate that as many as 10,000-15,000 demonstrators are blocking the highway in Tel Aviv.