{"id":977,"date":"2023-01-27T16:25:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-27T16:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/?p=977"},"modified":"2023-10-20T11:45:57","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T11:45:57","slug":"unrest-in-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/unrest-in-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Unrest in Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The battle rages in Israel between the left that lost the elections and the new right-wing government. Thousands of Israelis took to the streets last Saturday evening to protest plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government whose opponents say threaten democracy and freedoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protesters gathered in the central city of Tel Aviv days after the right-wing and religiously conservative government was sworn in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe settler government is against me,\u201d read one placard. Another banner read, \u201cHousing, Livelihood, Hope.\u201d Some protesters carried rainbow flags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protest was led by left-wing and Arab members of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. They contend that proposed plans by the new Cabinet will hinder the judicial system and widen societal gaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The left-wing protesters slammed Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who recently unveiled the government’s long-promised overhaul of the judicial system that aims to weaken the country’s Supreme Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics accused the government of declaring war on the legal system, saying the plan will up-end Israel’s system of checks and balances and undermine its democratic institutions by giving absolute power to the new governing coalition.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Picture: Israeli and Palestinian flags are seen at an anti-government demonstration in Tel Aviv, January 7, 2023. (Ahmad Al-Bazz) from +972 Magazine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Yair Lapid, the former prime minister and head of the opposition, said he would fight the changes \u201cin every possible way\u201d and vowed to cancel them if he returns to power. \u201cThose who carry out a unilateral coup in Israel need to know that we are not obligated to it in any way whatsoever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What has triggered this battle is the left\u2019s objections to what they claim is a combination of the government\u2019s proposed laws against LGBTQ rights, its plan to overhaul the law enforcement and education systems, and, most prominently, its proposals for \u201creform\u201d of the judiciary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, democracy is not threatened if an elected body sets the rules to void a law that a majority of judges believe offends a Basic Law. Should a mere 8 or 11 Supreme Court judges invalidate a Knesset law? This is what the government wants to refute since these laws are legislative judgments and not judicial prerogatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newly-appointed Justice Minister Levin\u2019s proposed law would make several other reasonable changes affecting the membership and power of Israel\u2019s judiciary, but not removing their power completely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Levin and the Knesset\u2019s Chair Rothman have stated they intend to make reforms in the Israeli judicial system, mainly in the authority of the Supreme Court. Read more about the suggested reforms here – Click<\/a>. The left and Arab parties are protesting against the new government every Saturday in Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These protests are organized and financed by left-wing organizations such as Standing Together<\/em>, the New Fund for Israel<\/em>, and Breaking the Silence<\/em> all of which oppose Israel being God\u2019s Land and a Jewish State. They claim that Israel should be the state of ALL its citizens, not just Jews and that this government is promoting \u201cracist\u201d and \u201cdictatorial policies.\u201d The left is declaring a \u201cstruggle for democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Saturday protests also include a smaller, more radical group of Israeli anti-Zionists and pro-Palestinians who hold banners and signs against Israeli \u2018apartheid\u2019 and \u2018colonialism,\u2019 as well as Palestinian flags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week National Security Minister Ben Gvir instructed the police commissioner to ban the Palestinian flag in public and called for more drastic measures against future demonstrations. Gvir\u2019s measures have incited more people, even leaders from nearly every political party in the opposition, to commit to a similar demonstration expected shortly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are thankful to the Lord that there was not one incident of violence in these protests. Please pray that peaceful protests will continue to be peaceful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The battle rages in Israel between the left that lost the elections and the new right-wing government. Thousands of Israelis took to the streets last Saturday evening to protest plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government whose opponents say threaten democracy and freedoms. The protesters gathered in the central city of Tel Aviv days […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[66,18],"tags":[174,173,175,172],"class_list":["post-977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-newsletter-archive","category-general-stories-about-israelis","tag-demonstrations","tag-protests","tag-supreme-court","tag-unrest","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=977"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":983,"href":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977\/revisions\/983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}