Hundreds of security services join anti-Netanyahu protests

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Israeli Media + New York Times
26 Feb 2023
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Renewed mass demonstrations in "Israel" against the government of Benjamin Netanyahu now include hundreds of occupation security forces.

Israelis protest plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new government to overhaul the judicial system, in "Tel Aviv", occupied Palestine, Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023 (AP Photo)

Mass demonstrations in "Israel" against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu renewed, on Saturday, for the eighth week in a row.

Over 130,000 participated in demonstrations in the center of "Tel Aviv," in conjunction with the closure of many streets by the occupation police.

The escalation of the protests comes at a time when the Minister of Justice in the occupation government, Yariv Levin, PM Netanyahu, and the Chairman of the Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee in the Knesset, Simcha Rotman, continue to advance the plan for judicial reforms.

Likewise, Israeli media reported that demonstrations against the draft judicial reforms occur simultaneously in "Tel Aviv," occupied Haifa, and occupied Al-Quds "for the eighth week in a row."

The Israeli media further pointed to "the widening of the protests, with hundreds of members of the security services joining the demonstrations against the judicial amendments."

Thousands of israeli occupation settlers broke through security checkpoints and cut off a major road in “Tel Aviv” pic.twitter.com/aKSvjnCCtJ
— Hussein (@EyesOnSouth) February 25, 2023

Despite weeks of protests from Israelis, the Knesset voted in favor of going through with the judicial reform legislation criticized as undermining the separation of power within "Israel".

Settlers across occupied Palestine have been vehemently protesting the legislation under the pretext of it being a threat to "democracy", namely how it increases the authority of politicians over judges.

On February 21, 63 members of the occupation's Knesset, more than the absolute majority of the quorum, voted in favor of the bill during the first reading.

Before passing to its second and third readings in the Knesset, the bill will return to the law committee for further discussion.

Democracy cannot be saved when it never existed in 'Israel': NYT

The New York Times published a piece by Peter Beinart, a professor of journalism and political science, titled "You Can’t Save Democracy in a Jewish State" in which the writer explained why "Israel" is not a democracy despite continuous claims by its officials on the importance of "saving democracy".

Beinart discussed the topic following an era of unprecedented chaos in "Israel", where Israeli demonstrators claimed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new government has imperiled efforts to "preserve 'Israel' as a Jewish and democratic state."

Former Prime Ministers Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett and former minister Benny Gantz have also voiced their concerns on "saving democracy" in recent days. However, Beinart marked a significant difference in what is happening in "Israel", which has been likened to anti-populist demonstrations elsewhere in the world.

"The people most threatened by Mr. Netanyahu’s authoritarianism aren’t part of the movement against it," said Beinart and explained that very few Palestinians have joined the ongoing demonstrations.

According to the professor, the anti-Netanyahu movement is "a movement to preserve the political system that existed before Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition took power, which was not, for Palestinians, a genuine liberal democracy in the first place." More clearly, the NYT report argued, "It’s a movement to save liberal democracy for Jews."

Beinart further made the argument to depict "how illiberal the liberal Zionism" can be. He used one example from the Lapid era, where he argued that then-PM Lapid "implored the Knesset to renew a law that denies Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip who are married to Palestinian citizens the right to live with their spouses" inside the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.

In a more blunt approach, the professor explained, "For most of the Palestinians under Israeli control — those in the West Bank and Gaza Strip—'Israel' is not a democracy," adding, "It’s not a democracy because Palestinians in the Occupied Territories can’t vote for the government that dominates their lives."

Beinart also made reference to Gaza being an open-air prison and the Palestinian Authority being "a subcontractor, not a state."

Significantly, the Jewish professor re-examined a 2018 incident wherein a number of Palestinian legislators presented legislation “to anchor in constitutional law the principle of equal citizenship.” At the time, Beinart said the speaker of the Knesset refused to even discuss the topic because it would “gnaw at the foundations of the state.”

The country "belongs to Jews like me, who don’t live there" the professor said, adding "but not to the Palestinians who live under its control, even the lucky few who hold Israeli citizenship." This is a reality from long before the Netanyahu coalition came to power, the NYT piece highlighted before concluding that "this is the vibrant liberal democracy that liberal Zionists want to save."