Israel Beitenu Chairman MK Avigdor Liberman on Monday morning tweeted: “Turns out it’s working. No dictator can stand up to a broad and just public protest that encompasses all sections of the populace. I hope that at 10:30 this morning, beyond stopping the legislation, we will hear about the resignation of the Prime Minister and the Justice Minister.”
103FM just reported that Ben Gurion International Airport was shut down in response to the judicial reform. There’s no telling how PM Netanyahu would be able to stand up to the well-orchestrated campaign to overturn his election.
Meanwhile, in Netanyahu’s chambers, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was reportedly screaming at the PM: “What is this thing? We can’t fold like that!” Ben Gvir announced: “This day something happened in Israel. The reform of the judicial system must not be stopped and we must not surrender to anarchy.”
According to reports, only Ben Gvir’s threat to leave the coalition and thus subject Netanyahu’s coalition government to a collapse is preventing Netanyahu from announcing the suspension of the judicial reform. On the other hand, according to Kan 11 News, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich gave the PM his approval to suspend the legislation.
שום דיקטטור לא מסוגל לעמוד מול מחאה ציבורית צודקת שמקיפה את כל חלקי העם. pic.twitter.com/W2kyr5Sf16
— אביגדור ליברמן (@AvigdorLiberman) March 27, 2023
Liberman continued: “If not, I call on my friends in the Likud, for the benefit of the State of Israel, to oust Netanyahu and form a new coalition consisting of the Zionist parties, with the Prime Minister coming from the ranks of the Likud.”
MK Yuli Edelstein, Chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, who may be the Likud leader Liberman was hinting at, declared after a closed room discussion with the ousted Defense Minister Yoav Gallant: “We heard alarming things. This is not the time to change the defense minister.”
According to Kan 11, Gallant told the committee: “There is a significant acceleration of processes that will affect the functioning of the IDF and the defense establishment.” According to him, the legislative processes that led to the division and alienation of the people have already deeply penetrated the IDF and the defense establishment, thus directly affecting the activities of the defense establishment.
Histadrut Chairman Arnon Bar David declared a general strike of the economy if the legislation is not stopped: “We are shutting down the country,” he announced to a cheering crowd. The Medical trade union also announced that it would shut down the health care system.
The Knesset Constitution Committee Chairman Simcha Rothman said after passing the vote that sent the judicial reform to a plenum vote: “I appeal to all the protesters. Many people are engaged in trying to spread fake news to you. It’s a balanced and good law, read it. In every democratic country, the people elect the judges. In every democratic country in the world, judges do not have a veto on the election of judges.”
