Israelis back in streets to protest judicial overhaul vote
Thousands of Israelis returned to the streets of Tel Aviv late Thursday, July 27, to protest against parliament's approval of a key component in the hard-right government's controversial judicial reform package, AFP reports.
On Monday, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and his coalition allies pushed through a bill in the chamber, which opponents say opens the way to a more authoritarian government. The bill limits the "reasonableness" clause used by the Supreme Court to overturn government decisions that the judges deem unconstitutional.
Waving Israeli flags and chanting "Democracy, Democracy!" protesters rallied on Thursday evening in Tel Aviv, the epicenter of the demonstrations since the judicial overhaul package was first unveiled in January.
Netanyahu on Thursday minimized his hard-right government's judicial reform package in interviews with US media, calling it a "minor correction" while dismissing international and domestic criticism. "It's described as the end of Israeli democracy – I think that's silly and when the dust settles, everybody will see it," Netanyahu said.
He described the changes, which shift some power from the Middle Eastern country's judicial system to its elected officials, as an effort to "bring the pendulum to the middle." "We have to correct it, and that's what we just did. It's a minor correction," he said, repeating the sentiments in a separate interview on CNN.
