All eyes are on Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Whether he delays his announced reforms, takes them off the table entirely, or introduces them immediately: it will affect the survival of his coalition in any case.
For weeks, there have been major unrest among Israelis, and today demonstrators once again took to the streets en masse, according to Israeli correspondent Ralph Dekkers. Their main message? “The reforms announced by Netanyahu have been ignored,” he says. Or at least postpone it until a broader agreement can be discussed with the opposition.
“The demonstrators want to take reforms off the table”
This is a widely shared view, Dekkers says, although he notes that protests have now intensified and that demonstrators are also calling for Netanyahu to go. But an agreement appears to be on the horizon, he says. “The reforms will be delayed until July, and in exchange a controversial far-right minister will be allowed to form a national guard,” Dekkers continues. “A kind of private militia for himself, which is a very scary move.”
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According to Dekkers, such a militia was not expected. He says that the concerned minister was one of the staunchest opponents of postponing the reforms. And he’s also had the desire to create a private army for some time. The question now is whether the demonstrators in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem will accept that.
United State
The conflict surrounding Netanyahu and the proposal to allow the judiciary to be regulated by politicians has also attracted the attention of the United States. So much so that the United States issued an official warning to Netanyahu. Foreign commentator Bernhard Hamelburg says this has quite a few concerns. It is not at all common, he says, “because it is a rule among allies and democracies not to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs”.
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It is believed that while this is an internal matter for Israel. However, a spokesperson for Biden announced that the United States is indeed getting involved.
relationship
The reason for this is because the relationship between the United States and Israel is not just a traditional, visible and overt friendship, but also because the military and intelligence ties are formidable. “And that can be seen in all kinds of factors,” Hamelburg continues. Take, for example, the attacks carried out by the Israeli Air Force on Syrian and Iranian targets. And all this is coordinated by the Americans. Not to mention Iron Dome. It was all developed in cooperation with the Americans.
what is he talking about?
But what is the big problem? The right-wing government wants to pass a package of reforms that would allow the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) to overturn Supreme Court decisions. This means that politicians can always have the last word. “This is seen by experts as a problem, because Israel does not have a constitution, Senate or human rights court,” said Israeli reporter Ralph Dekkers. “The only real check of checks and balances comes from the Supreme Court. According to the demonstrators, if this power is taken away, a dictatorship will be established.
In addition, a law to change the composition of the Judges Appointment Committee is being discussed. “In the beginning, the judge was appointed by judges, lawyers and politicians, and now politicians have veto power.”
