Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hit pause on a proposed judicial reform to allow more time for negotiations and "avoid civil war." His comments come after a dramatic day in which hundreds of thousands of Israeli protesters on both sides of the issue poured into city squares and a nationwide strike shut down flights at Israel's international airport.
"When there's an option to avoid civil war through dialogue, I take a time-out for dialogue," Netanyahu said, according to the Times of Israel. He said the bill would be delayed "out of national responsibility" until the next Knesset session a month from now.
For months, Israelis have been debating a bill that would give the elected government authority to appoint new judges and effectively reduce the power of the Israeli Supreme Court to strike down laws passed by the ruling majority. The lack of any written constitution makes the concept of judicial review much more complicated in Israel than in the United States. For the right-wing government, the law is a necessary corrective to a judiciary that has usurped power never explicitly granted to it, while protesters view the move as a power grab by Netanyahu and his ministers that would give them unchecked power to fundamentally change Israel.
The debate has triggered escalating protests throughout Israel, which exploded on Sunday night after Netanyahu announced he had fired the Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant. The minister had criticized the judicial reform push, arguing that the rift was threatening the nation's security by undermining support for Israel's Defense Forces. Last week, there were reports that in, just 57 percent of reservists in one unit had reported for duty (compared to the usual turnout of 90 percent).
Following Gallant’s firing, protests soon broke out in Israel's major cities including Haifa, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv (where protesters blocked a major highway and had to be dispersed by police with water cannons). On Monday, tech workers went on strike and unionized airport workers prevented planes from departing Ben Gurion, the nation's main airport. There were also massive counter-protests by those supportive of the bill.
Following Netanyahu announcement, the country's main labor union called off massive strikes that had been planned for tomorrow. But while the pause may diffuse the immediate crisis, it didn't really resolve any of the fundamental issues that have led to the conflict in the first place.
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