More than 100,000 Protestors Take to Tel Aviv Streets Again

With legislation for the judicial overhaul plans of the government proceeds apace, people opposing it took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday night for the eighth week in succession.

The main demonstration was help in Kaplan Street, Tel Aviv around the offices of the government. According to organizers, the number of protestors present was 160,000.

They also said that 130,000 more protestors participated in the demonstrations in other cities.

The incidents

21 protestors were also arrested by the Israeli police during the evening for creating disturbances. A statement from the police said that a policewoman and policeman were bitten and had received medical treatment.

The south side of the Ayalon Highway saw a group of protestors light a bonfire, which resulted in thirteen arrests.

Roni Alsheich, the former Israeli Police commander, spoke during the Tel Aviv rally. He talked about the think tank named Kohelet Policy Forum.

It has not only supported the changes that the government wants to make to the Supreme Court, but in 2018, the think tank was also behind the Basic Law, which declared the country as a nation for Jewish people.

The speakers

He said that the think tank’s ideas are not Jewish at all. He said that Judaism is about controlling and separating powers and the job of a public servant is to serve the people.

He stated that instead of this, all they get to hear from these public servants is that they are here to rule and govern.

Alsheich said that it did not have any Jewish value because they are giving supreme value to governance and are not even paying attention to the Ten Commandments.

Ehud Barak, the former prime minister, also spoke in the Tel Aviv rally. He said that they wanted to defend independence because the government was planning a coup d’état’.

He added that this was similar to what had happened in Poland and Hungary and they would only consider dialogue when legislation is halted.

He asserted that there was no symmetry and it was not a neighborly dispute. It was something that was extremely important for them.

Other areas

In Haifa, Benny Gantz, the head of the National Unity party, spoke and said that they would not leave the country.

He stated that they would continue to fight for Israel and would take care of it in accordance with the rules that had been highlighted in the Declaration of Independence.

He added that even though there were dark clouds, but they would not stop their struggle, whether it is in the media, in the Knesset, or in the streets. Gantz said that they would continue to do everything possible.

According to protest organizers, more than 300,000 people attended the rallies in different parts of the country this weekend.

Despite such a massive turnout, the hardline coalition of President Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has no intention of putting a stop to legislation.

This is in spite of the warnings that have been issued by people from different industries.