71 individuals have been detained nationwide, and police deployed water cannons to clear a busy highway.It occurs after a bill to eliminate the Supreme Court’s ability to review decisions made by ministers was approved in the first reading of parliament on Monday evening.
The policies have polarized the nation and led to months of large-scale protests.
The law is a component in a series of changes that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the most right-wing in Israeli history, has proposed to curtail the judiciary’s authority.
It contends that the judiciary interferes in politics far too much and subverts popular will. The country’s democratic system, according to some opposed to the reforms, is in severe danger from the government’s overly ambitious intentions.
In the event that the bill introduced on Monday night passed the first of the three readings required before it can become law, protest leaders had called for a Day of Resistance on Tuesday.
Just before MPs cast their votes on the measure, there were dramatic scenes inside the Jerusalem parliament building as demonstrators attempted to attach themselves to the floor by the chamber’s entrance before being pulled away by security.
Protesters brandishing flares, banging drums, waving Israeli flags, and screaming slogans stopped highways around the nation early on Tuesday morning, causing gridlock during rush hour.Video captured a police horse slamming a protester to the ground in Tel Aviv, and protesters burned tires in the center of an intersection in Herzliya before police arrived to remove them.
Later on Tuesday, tens of thousands of protesters descended upon Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport, congregating in Terminal 3, the airport’s main hub, which had been designated as a protest location. Some people complained of being crammed in and surrounded by cops.
Earlier, a group of war veterans demonstrated inside the terminal, and their supporters greeted travelers as red-capped characters from the dystopian book and television series The Handmaid’s Tale.
Demonstrations have also been organized for outside the US embassy’s outpost in Tel Aviv, the Israeli defense ministry, and the president’s residence in Jerusalem.
Since the administration presented the divisive reform plans at the beginning of the year, there have been weekly large-scale protests that frequently pull hundreds of thousands of people to the streets.
The core of Israel’s military, hundreds of reservists, have vowed to quit reporting for duty in protest of the reforms.
Reservists from Israel’s Mossad spy service and Shin Bet domestic security agency also declared on Tuesday that they would follow suit.
The chief of staff of the military has stated that reservists do not have the right to cancel appointments, and the military has threatened to take action against anyone who makes good on their threats.
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