Herzog hopes to avert constitutional crisis after Netanyahu govt row

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Israeli occupation President Isaac Herzog said Sunday he sought to avert a looming constitutional crisis that the judicial reforms being discussed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet could bring upon the occupation.

This comes after Israeli occupation Justice Minister Yariv Levin announced earlier in the month a controversial plan to hand more powers to lawmakers in appointing judges and overriding Supreme Court decisions. The prospect of such an overhaul drew a lot of public criticism and prompted illegal Israeli settlers to take to the street and protest against the government.

The Israeli occupation is now "in the grips of a profound disagreement" that threatens to it, Herzog said.

"I respect the criticism toward me, but I am now focused on two critical roles that I believe I bear as President at this hour: averting a historic constitutional crisis and stopping the continued rift" within "Israel", Herzog stressed.

According to the occupation's president, the so-called Israeli "justice" system, notorious for its bias against Palestinian defendants, is one of the "foundations of Israel's democracy", and he went on to underline that this branch of government should not be affected by political intrusion.

"Over the past week, I have been working full time, by every means, making nonstop efforts with the relevant parties, with the aim of creating wide-reaching, attentive, and respectful discussion and dialogue, which I hope will yield results," Herzog said, admitting that he was not certain of the success of his endeavor. 

The occupation president's words come a day after Israelis went in demonstrations that took place in various occupied Palestinian cities and settlements, including "Tel Aviv", Haifa, and Al-Quds, against the newly-inaugurated premier. 

Some 20,000 Israelis took to the streets of "Tel Aviv" on Saturday to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet, which has been criticized various times as being the most far-right government in Israeli history.

Protestors carried signs with slogans condemning the government and calling it a "government of shame", calling for "bring[ing] down the dictator".

The Israeli occupation forces estimated that some 20,000 protesters were on the street, with the organizers claiming there were "several tens of thousands" of protesters. It was revealed that some 80,000 took to the streets.

This is Netanyahu's sixth term after he was ousted from power in June last year, ending his 12-year run as prime minister, making him the longest-running premier since the start of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

With Netanyahu coming back in, his third reign of terror will begin after having served as PM from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021. This is his most controversial government to date, expected to lead to a Third Palestinian Intifada.

The demonstrators repeated chants against the new Israeli occupation government and some of its extremist ministers such as Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich.

Following his November 1 election win, Netanyahu took office late last month at the head of a coalition with extreme-right and Zionist parties, some of whose officials now head key ministries. The new occupation government has announced intentions to pursue a policy of settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.

Moreover, the protesters called on the corruption-embattled PM to resign from office just a month after he assumed.

Illustrating the increasingly stark division between Israelis, the president of Israeli occupation’s Supreme Court Esther Hayut lashed out on Thursday at the "judicial reform plan" proposed by Netanyahu's cabinet, stressing that it "would crush the justice system."

Hayet begins her speech at a conference of the Israeli Association of Public Law, likely the harshest speech ever delivered by a serving Supreme Court president against a ruling coalition, by noting that "a few days ago, the new justice minister presented a lightning plan for far-reaching changes in the justice system."

"In practice," she charges, "it amounts to an unrestrained attack on the justice system, as though it was an enemy that had to be rushed and defeated."

“With great cynicism, the architects of the plan call it a plan to correct the judicial system.’ And I say, it is a plan to crush the judicial system. It is intended to deliver a fatal blow to the independence and autonomy of the judicial system and silence it,” she added.

“This conclusion is clear,” Hayut stressed, "both from the way in which the justice minister chose to present his plan and from its content and essence. There is no other way to understand the dramatic press conference that the minister chose to arrange just days after he took office in which he presented his plan."

Political divisions in "Israel" between the government and the opposition are escalating in light of the exchange of accusations of responsibility for the possible outbreak of an "internal war", and the latest protests are just one of the signs of this ticking time bomb.