About five hours after thousands blocked Israel’s main Ayalon highway, police began using force to disperse protesters, informed Haretz. Police officers fired water cannons and tear gas, while protesters threw bottles and rocks at them.
By data According to the Jerusalem Post, three security officials were injured in clashes between police and protesters. According to a police statement, thousands of protesters in Tel Aviv disrupted traffic by burning tires and placing barriers, rocks and iron on a road outside Kiriya at the junction of the Kaplan and Kaplan highways. Ayalon (goes through the largest aggregation, Gush Dan and connects all major highways in the central region of Israel).
Now workers clear makeshift barricades of trash and tires on the track, writing The Times of Israel. The newspaper’s sources note that amid protests, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may reconsider further progress in judicial reform. By words According to Haaretz, some Israeli government ministers – all members of Netanyahu’s Likud party – have also suggested that the prime minister repeal the law.
On January 4, the head of the Israeli Ministry of Justice, Yariv Levin, presented a plan for judicial reform in the country. According to the document, the Israeli government will be granted unlimited control over the appointment of judges and a reduction in the powers of the Supreme Court. Opponents of this reform have, in turn, accused the document’s authors of wanting to concentrate power in the hands of the ruling party.
Protests
Protests against the judicial bill have been going on in Israel for 12 weeks. They erupted with renewed vigor on the night of March 27 after Netanyahu sacked Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant for calling for a suspension of judicial reform. According to opposition leader and former prime minister Naftali Bennett, Netanyahu should withdraw the letter on the dismissal of the head of the Defense Ministry and suspend judicial reform.
Bennett pointed out that Israel is now “in the greatest danger since the Yom Kippur war.” He also urged protesters to do everything without violence or bloodshed.
The White House has already reacted to the protests in Israel. In a statement from Adrianne Watson, head of the White House National Security Council said that the United States is “deeply concerned by today’s events in Israel, which once again underscore the urgent need for compromise.” Washington is convinced that democratic values have always been and must remain a feature of US-Israeli relations.
