Protest-hit Israel faces strike over reforms
A nationwide protest grounded flights, shut down universities and malls, and Israel’s largest trade union asked its 800,000 members to stop work
Workers from a range of sectors in Israel launched a nationwide strike on Monday, threatening to paralyse the economy as they joined a surging protest movement against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul the judiciary.
Departing flights from the country’s main international airport were grounded, large mall chains and universities shut their doors, and Israel’s largest trade union called for its 800,000 members — in health, transit, banking and other fields — to stop work.
Diplomats walked off the job at foreign missions, local governments were expected to close the preschools they run and cut other services, and the main doctors union announced its members would also strike.
Netanyahu was due to address the nation later on Monday, a day after sacking his defence minister who had broken ranks over the divisive issue, and following President Isaac Herzog urging an immediate stop to the reform push.
Israeli media speculated that Netanyahu may temporarily back down from the reforms, with justice minister Yariv Levin saying he will “accept any decision that Prime Minister Netanyahu makes” on the legislation.
The nationwide walkout was called hours after Herzog pressed for an immediate halt to the judicial programme, following demonstrations in Tel Aviv overnight.
“For the sake of the unity of the people of Israel... I call on you to halt the legislative process immediately,” Herzog said in a statement.
Tens of thousands of protesters gathered on Monday outside the Knesset, or parliament, to keep up the pressure.
“This is the last chance to stop this move into a dictatorship,” said Matityahu Sperber, 68, who joined a stream of people headed to the protest. “I’m here for the fight to the end.”
The overhaul — driven by Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, and his allies in Israel’s most right-wing government ever—has plunged Israel into one of its worst domestic crises. It has sparked sustained protests that have galvanised nearly all sectors of society, including its military, where reservists have increasingly come out publicly to say they will not serve a country veering towards autocracy.
The turmoil has magnified longstanding and intractable differences over Israel’s character that have riven it since its establishment. The protesters say they are fighting for the very soul of the nation, saying the overhaul will remove Israel’s system of checks and balances and directly challenge its democratic ideals.
The government has labelled them anarchists out to topple a democratically elected leadership and says the plan will restore a balance between the judicial and executive branches and rein in what they see as an interventionist court with liberal sympathies.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid said the crisis was driving Israel to the brink.
“We’ve never been closer to falling apart. Our national security is at risk, our economy is crumbling, our foreign relations are at their lowest point ever, we don’t know what to say to our children about their future in this country,” Lapid said. “We have been taken hostage by a bunch of extremists with no brakes and no boundaries.”
It was unclear if the threats posed by the strikes to Israel’s economy, which is already on shaky ground, would prompt Netanyahu to halt the overhaul.