Fresh protests in Israeli cities against contentious judical changes

As fresh protests took place in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities on Thursday night against his government’s judicial overhaul, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu defended the proposals, arguing that they would strengthen Israeli democracy.

In a televised address he also condemned Israeli military reservists who announced they would refuse call-up orders in protest against the controversial legislation. “Refusing to serve endangers Israeli security and democracy,” he said. “Refusal to serve by one side leads the other side to refuse.”

Parliament is due to vote into law the controversial legislation, which would stop Israel’s supreme court using the criterion of “reasonableness” to block decisions by the government, ministers and elected officials, early next week. The reasonableness standard is a common law doctrine that allows judicial review and striking down of government decisions deemed unreasonable in the extreme.

Opponents claim the move will end Israel’s traditional system of checks and balances by emasculating the judiciary and leaving the executive with the power to make appointments and pass legislation without effective judicial review.

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Several hundreds of reserve officers, including pilots, have announced they are freezing their reserve service effective immediately. Military officials say the trend has not yet crossed a red line in terms of the military’s overall preparedness for war, but they are concerned about the numbers that are growing by the day and could soon reach such a level.

Some 200 reservists from the air force’s operations staff, flight school and pilots on active duty have already declared their intention to refuse to serve. Some told their commanders that they were suspending their service for the coming weeks in order to see if and when the legislation moves forward.

“The Israel Defence Forces [IDF] has based itself on being primarily a reserve army from day one,” said the IDF chief of staff Lieut Gen Herzl Halevi. “These are Israel’s best people and we admire them. Without them the ‘people’s army’ model would not have survived 75 years. Calls not to serve hurt the IDF.”

Refuse to serve

Some 300 military doctors who are active in the reserves — about 20 per cent of all military doctors — have also announced they will no longer serve.

The IDF condemned on Thursday a video made by supporters of the judicial overhaul and shared by two coalition ministers, which portrayed air force pilots refusing to provide support to ground troops under attack unless they condemned the government’s judicial reform. “Do you support or oppose the reform?” a pilot repeatedly asked the troops as they begged for air support, before peeling off and leaving them to be killed by enemy combatants.

On Sunday supporters and opponents of the judicial changes plan a joint demonstration calling for a broad consensus. After prayers at the Western (Wailing) Wall in Jerusalem’s old city attended by both camps, a human chain will be formed to Israel’s parliament, symbolising the connection organisers say must not be broken between the Jewish and the democratic character of the state.