TEL AVIV: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition plunged into chaos on Monday, after mass overnight protests over the sacking of his defence chief piled pressure on the government to halt its bitterly contested plans to overhaul the judiciary.
Amid reports his nationalist-religious coalition risked breaking apart, Israel faced one of the biggest waves of industrial action seen in years after the Histadrut union called for a general strike.
Netanyahu had been expected to make a televised statement on Monday morning announcing the plans, which he says are needed to restore balance to the system of government but that critics see as a threat to democracy, had been suspended.
The statement was postponed, however, as Netanyahu met heads of the coalition parties.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who has been leading the process, said that as a member of the ruling Likud party he would respect whatever decision Netanyahu reached.
A Likud official and another source closely involved in the legislation said Netanyahu would suspend the overhaul, which has ignited some of the biggest street demonstrations in Israel’s history and drawn a rare intervention by the head of state.
Netanyahu, himself on trial on corruption charges which he denies, has promised to ensure civil rights are protected but has not backed down from the central thrust of the reforms.
However the stark warning by Herzog underlined the alarm caused by the proposals, which would tighten political control over judicial appointments and allow parliament to overrule the Supreme Court.
It followed a dramatic night of protests in cities across Israel following Netanyahu’s announcement that he had decided to dismiss Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for opposing the plans.
A day earlier, Gallant had made a televised appeal for the government to halt its plans, warning that the deep split it had opened up in Israeli society was affecting the military and threatening national security.
With the army reinforcing units in the occupied West Bank after a year of unrelenting violence that has killed more than 250 Palestinian gunmen and civilians and more than 40 Israelis, the removal of the defence minister fed accusations
that the government was sacrificing the national interest for its own.
As opposition spread, the head of the Histadrut labour union called for a general strike if the proposals were not halted.
Take-offs from Ben Gurion airport were suspended, while Israel’s main seaports, banks and hospitals and medical services were set to strike. —Reuters
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