Israel is braced for a new wave of turmoil as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government pushes ahead with a judicial overhaul that has divided the country and spooked investors.
Parliament is set to hold the first of three votes late Monday on a controversial bill that would remove from judges the power to void government appointments or decisions they deem “unreasonable.”
Netanyahu’s coalition, the most right-wing in Israel’s history, argues that the judiciary has grown too powerful and is captured by the left. Opponents of the changes, which encompass a broad swath of Israelis from tech entrepreneurs to military veterans, say they would give self-interested politicians unchecked powers.
Why Israel Is Bitterly Split by a Judiciary Overhaul: QuickTake
They’ve mounted protests ever since Netanyahu announced his plan in January. A lull in demonstrations to allow for talks ended in recent weeks as negotiations broke down.
Protest groups are planning to resume major protests and civil disobedience on Tuesday.
“These are fateful days, that require we act by all means to stop the dictatorship,” the Kaplan Group, one of the leading protest organizations, said in a text message. It called on supporters to disrupt life and traffic, including creating snarls at Israel’s main international airport for the second time this month.
The shekel depreciated as much as 0.9% Monday, and has fallen 5.7% since the beginning of the year. Investors are fleeing as the planned changes raise questions over the rule of law, with some tech firms threatening to relocate.
The change is expected to be approved in Monday’s plenum reading. The government is hoping to push through the bill by the end of this month, when parliament goes into its summer recess, according to Israeli media.
Barak Medina, a law professor at Hebrew University, said that even if parliament approves this element of the judicial overhaul, the Supreme Court could still find a way to block it.
“I think that the court will find a way to either strike it down or narrow it, so even if the Knesset legislates it, it isn’t the end of the game,” he said.
Nevertheless, concerns over the bill have prompted renewed threats from army reservists, which form part of the backbone of Israeli security.
Brothers in Arms, an organization including tens of thousands of reservists, plans to resume protests and has said it would boycott training and exercises if the change goes ahead. It was such threats that helped push the government into negotiations earlier this year.
This time, the government is taking a harder line.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has condemned threats to withhold military service. Netanyahu’s security cabinet said Monday it “unanimously supports” Gallant’s warnings.
President Isaac Herzog, who has pushed for talks, said it wasn’t too late to reach a compromise.
Divisions between Israelis who support the bill and those who oppose it are already beginning to turn ugly.
Last Tuesday, a man drove through a group of demonstrators on the Ayalon highway near Tel Aviv hitting a photographer who was slightly hurt. The same day, a man veered his car toward a cluster of protesters on a main road outside Jerusalem, almost hitting a young boy.
(Updates with incidents of violence in final two paragraphs.)
