Tens of thousands of protesters in Israel have taken to the streets, blocking roads and vowing to escalate action against the government’s proposed judicial reforms. The bill aims to remove the Supreme Court’s current authority to review ministers. The bill passed its first reading in parliament, sparking mass demonstrations today. Employers gave employees the day off from work and people were out protesting in the streets from 7 am and through the dark. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government argues the courts have too much political influence, leading to a polarized country. The Israel Daily News Podcast went out to the various hot spots of demonstration around the city in Tel Aviv to see how the protesters feel.
Dania, originally from the United States moved to Tel Aviv 13 years ago. She runs her own business but says she pushed all meetings back into the late afternoon in order to encourage her employees to hit the street.
She says,
“I mean, I’m American, so at its roots, standing up and participating is the core of democracy, and what I’m very proud of is that I have watched Israel transform into this understanding since the winter, into the spring, and now in the summer. This has been going on for six months, and the first weeks of the protest, people didn’t even know what to say or to do. They didn’t feel the energy of standing and screaming and cheering. And now they found it and they realize, you know, you’re either there, you’re participating, or you can lose it.”
“Protest continues to be an extremely important part of democracy in Israel. We have to keep showing up and we have to keep fighting and we have to be, we really need to get them out of there, but I’m afraid we won’t so we have to keep showing up, you know?”
A woman from Jaffa, who preferred to remain anonymous, says she came out to the protest despite having some fears of the chaos.
“No, I don’t feel safe because just this morning I was on the sidewalk and a policeman with a horse came in front of me and other people. All of us were on the sidewalk but he didn’t care and we just saw the horse in front of us. Yeah, scary. So I don’t feel safe.”
While some were encouraged by their companies to take off, Noa, who works as a Neurologist at the Tel Aviv Medical Center says she was told to keep working and remain apolitical.
As the day continued, demonstrations popped up as far as the beach, with many people swarming outside of the US embassy, waving Israeli and American flags as well as the rainbow flag that represents the gay community. All in all, The day was well handled with about 73 people arrested for disturbing the peace throughout the day. Out of those 73, 45 have already been released, according to police.
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