The Heat Stays On

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Thousands of people demonstrated across Israel over the weekend for the 18th consecutive week, with protesters attempting to keep up pressure on the government over its controversial plan to overhaul the judiciary, the Times of Israel reported.

The latest demonstrations saw a number of Israeli figures speaking against the proposed plan, including former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and leading tech entrepreneur, Moshe Radman.

Israel has been gripped by mass protests since the beginning of the year when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his conservative government unveiled a bill that would reform the judiciary.

The draft law would give Netanyahu’s ruling coalition an automatic majority in selecting the first Supreme Court justice appointments in any parliamentary term, as well as the top court’s president.

Critics, however, fear the changes will undermine the independence of the judiciary and weaken democracy by removing part of the system of checks and balances.

Facing pressure at home and abroad, Netanyahu has put the overhaul on hold and the government is negotiating with the opposition to reach a compromise.

Even so, Netanyahu’s coalition and opposition lawmakers remain completely deadlocked on the central issue of the Judicial Selection Committee, the body that selects the judges.

Protest organizers, meanwhile, are urging the opposition to abandon the talks, saying they are “a plot by Netanyahu to waste time in order to pass a budget.”

The weekend demonstrations followed Thursday’s “day of equality” protests that saw protesters carry out acts of civil disobedience, including highway blockades across the country.

The protests were mainly targeting the exemption from military service and other special privileges long granted to the growing ultra-Orthodox community.

Ultra-Orthodox Israeli families benefit from heavy public subsidies that allow boys and men to devote years to religious study instead of working and paying taxes in the mainstream economy, the Washington Post wrote.

Activists also demonstrated outside the homes of cabinet ministers and state religious institutions, and used blood-spattered mannequins to represent Israeli victims, with protesters dressed as characters from “The Handmaid’s Tale” advocating for women’s rights, and organizing a civil marriage ceremony outside the Tel Aviv rabbinate.