Israel is seeing a series of protests by the masses against, Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu after he fired their defense minister. Today, Israel saw a general strike that interrupted daily life and threatens to cripple the economy.
The flashpoint for all of this is Netanyahu’s controversial plan to change the country’s judicial system, weaken its Supreme Court and give Israel’s parliament – the Knesset, which is currently controlled by his government – more say over appointing justices.
Frustration with the court extends beyond Netanyahu, but his effort just so happens to coincide with his corruption trial Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing and any link between the judicial changes and his trial – but not everyone takes his denials at face value.
“He’s embraced this judicial reform movement – it’s actually a revolution movement – to try to give him the ability to stack … the Supreme Court in a way that people, Israelis generally, the suspect is designed to protect him from the consequences of the prosecution, the trial that he’s now going through,” former US Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk noted on the media on Monday. “So, it looks like it’s more of a personal agenda than a national agenda that he’s pursuing,” he added.
Netanyahu has defended the plan, which he argued in a recent interview, maintains the judiciary’s independence without allowing it to be “unbridled.”
The protests have been building for months, but it is a general strike that shut down daily life and the firing by Netanyahu of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that appears to have changed the situation.
“It’s clear that he’s lost control of the country,” Indyk said. “There’s never been a general strike like this, which is shutting down the ports, the airport, the hospitals, and schools.”
Shreya Bansal is a student of Journalism. She is an enthusiastic creative and content writer. Shreya is currently working at The Shining Media as a journalist and can be contacted at shreyabansal@theshiningmedia.in
