Long day of nationwide protests
Tens of thousands took to the streets throughout Israel, with protests taking on fresh urgency amid the coalition's move to pass a law curbing courts' oversight of government decisions.
(Times of Israel) – Dozens of people were arrested on Tuesday as the latest national day of mass protests against the Israeli government’s push to overhaul the judiciary continued late into the night, with police deploying water cannons and mounted officers to clear demonstrators blocking roads.
Tens of thousands took to the streets throughout the country, with protests taking on fresh urgency amid the coalition’s move to pass within days a law curbing courts’ oversight of government decisions. Organisers had called for a national “Day of Resistance” against the bill.
According to police, a total of 45 people were arrested throughout the day.
In Tel Aviv, hundreds of people marched onto the Ayalon highway around 9pm, blocking both directions of the major artery that passes through the city. Police eventually used water cannons and mounted officers to force open the road, one carriageway at a time. The highway was reopened before midnight.
This did not end events, however, with hundreds of activists including leaders of the grassroots protest movement setting out on a nighttime march along the Route 1 highway from Tel Aviv towards Jerusalem.
The group planned to sleep at Ariel Sharon Park and continue in the early morning. Further protest events were planned for Wednesday.
Police were also reported to have used water cannons to drive protesters from the Karkur Junction on Route 65, midway between Tel Aviv and Haifa. Police said 16 demonstrators were arrested at the scene.
At Ein HaMifratz Junction on Route 4, north of Haifa, two people were arrested during clashes with police. Ynet reported that three protesters required medical attention after pepper spray was squirted at them from an unidentified individual in a passing car.
There were violent clashes between protesters and police in Jerusalem when demonstrators tried to force their way past police to enter Gaza Street, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a private residence.
The day of protests came as the government ploughed ahead with legislation that will do away with courts’ ability to strike down cabinet and ministerial decisions over their “unreasonableness”, part of a wide-reaching package of changes to the judiciary that critics say will remove critical fetters on government power and weaken the Supreme Court.
Earlier in the day, demonstrators gathered at train stations across Israel causing disruptions during afternoon commuter hours. Police restricted access to several stations during the afternoon rallies, with hundreds gathering outside Tel Aviv’s HaShalom Station as demonstrators and journalists were barred from entering.
Demonstrators who did manage to get into the station rallied on the platform, with Israel Railways briefly instructing trains not to stop there on the grounds that the protest posed a danger.
Officers arrested six protesters who allegedly tried to delay a train.
Meanwhile, more than 160 reservists filling key roles across the Israeli Air Force said they were suspending their voluntary reserve duty, effective immediately, claiming that the government’s plans to overhaul the judiciary were turning the country into a “dictatorship”.
In an open letter announcing the decision, the senior officers said they were responding to the government advancing its “reasonableness” legislation.
The announcement was the latest to send shockwaves through the military, which is struggling to stem a growing flood of reservists dropping from volunteer duty to protest the overhaul.
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