AFTER 27 weeks of mass Israeli and Palestinian protests, Israel’s legislature has approved the first reading of a racist and divisive plan drawn up by the regime’s extremist cabinet, that contains fascists, to curtail the powers of the Supreme Court and the judiciary.
The Second Reading was due last night.
The bill proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right cabinet won 64 votes against 56 during a stormy parliamentary session on Monday, which saw protests by thousands of Israelis outside its building.
Ahead of the debate, some protesters entered the Knesset and had to be dragged out by the regime’s forces, while others continued to demonstrate outside.
The sound of protesters could be heard loud and clear at the nearby Bank of Israel, whose governor Amir Yaron told reporters that continued political uncertainty ‘is liable to have notable economic costs’ for the regime.
The bill has to clear two more readings before it can be signed into law. It seeks to reduce the Israeli judiciary’s power to rule on the cabinet’s decisions, including on the very makeup of the cabinet.
The dictatorial judicial overhaul scheme, which was introduced by Netanyahu’s extremist cabinet in January, has led to tens of thousands-strong protests across the occupied territories every Saturday for the past six months.
The overhaul will remove any remaining checks on the power of the Israeli government dictatorship.
Faced with overwhelming protests and a wave of industrial actions and military protests, Netanyahu paused the scheme in late March to enable talks on the issue. The decisive final vote was due last night.
On the eve of the vote major companies and shopping centres declared a general strike.
Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz has warned of a ‘worrying’ security situation across the occupied territories. Gantz, after a Sunday meeting with Israeli military’s Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, urged the need to ‘avoid unilateral moves’.
He said: ‘The security situation is very worrying and necessitates attention and strategic decisions on various fronts. The prime minister must convene a security cabinet meeting to understand the meaning of the overhaul legislation for the army before the bill passes.’
Gantz added that the same is true regarding the need to convene the foreign affairs and military committee. He warned: ‘Tonight’s meeting underlined even more the need to avoid unilateral moves’.
He spoke up after 10,000 reservists said they’ll halt their volunteer duty if Netanyahu’s extremist administration passes the contentious judicial overhaul bill into law. ‘We all share a responsibility to stop the deep division, polarisation and rift among the people,’ the reservists, including 235 fighter pilots, 173 drone operators, and 85 commando soldiers said in a declaration.
The signatories warned that an ‘unreasonable manner’ would erode their agreement to ‘risk their lives’ and ‘force’ them to suspend their voluntary reserve services.
The so-called judicial overhaul scheme seeks to take away the Israeli Supreme Court’s power to overrule the decisions made by the regime’s politicians. It is also aimed at giving the Israeli cabinet a greater say in the process of selecting judges for the court.
Hundreds of Israeli reserve doctors have reportedly suspended their military services in the regime’s occupation army in protest against Prime Minister Netanyahu. Protesters have vowed to keep holding the huge rallies until the cabinet decides against pushing through with the overhaul plan.
Even the regime’s attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, has accused Netanyahu of acting ‘illegally’ in championing the reforms. She added that the Prime Minister is trying to push on with the plan due to his long-running corruption trial in which he is accused of fraud and breach of trust.
The state of Israel is blowing apart under the weight of its own irreconcilable contradictions.
The way forward is for Palestinian and Israeli workers and youth to unite to end the Israeli military police state, which is already blowing apart under the impact of the sharpening of its own contradictions, and establish a State of Palestine where Jewish and Palestinian workers will be able to live and work side by side in harmony as equals to build a socialist future for all Palestinians regardless of their religions.