Chaos erupted in the Zionist entity as the Israeli parliament, Knesset, passed the first part of a bill to curb the power of the Supreme Court.
Anti-overhaul Israeli protesters faced off against occupation police for hours in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem Monday night, blocking freeways and promising to ratchet up demonstrations, as lawmakers vowed to push ahead with the rest of the contentious program.
Using mounted police and water cannons, occupation authorities only managed to clear the major Tel Aviv thoroughfare after 1 a.m., though thousands continued to demonstrate at nearby Kaplan junction, where some 15,000 had massed hours earlier in reaction to the government coalition’s contentious “reasonableness” bill being approved on its final two votes.
In occupied Al-Quds (Jerusalem), police also used officers on horseback and powerful blasts of skunk water to drive off protesters who rallied first outside the Knesset and later blocked the Begin freeway and demonstrated near the Supreme Court building, The Times of Israeli reported.
Protesters and Hebrew-language media reports accused the police of using excessive violence and brutal tactics largely unseen during 29 weeks of large protests against the overhaul. There were also a number of incidents of violence aimed at protesters or by them, including a driver that plowed through a group blocking a road north of Tel Aviv, injuring three.
Israeli Health System Strikes
Meanwhile, some 73% of Israeli medical residents will support the protest against the judicial reform and strike on Tuesday, the Intern Doctors Organization announced on Monday evening.
Additionally, the “Israel Medical Association” decided to disable the work of doctors for 24 hours in a decision that was voted on unanimously, The Jerusalem Post reported.
“It has been decided in the organization to support the call of the ‘White Coats’ and to call on all the intern doctors to join emergency assemblies across the country tomorrow and switch to working on an emergency basis,” the Intern Doctors Organization said.
“Black Day”
Several Israeli newspapers published an entirely black front page on Tuesday morning, following the passing of the Law to Cancel the Reasonableness Standard.
The pages were paid advertisements by the Israeli Hi-Tech Protest movement, a group comprised of representatives from hi-tech companies including CEOs, venture capital investors, self-employed entrepreneurs and regular hi-tech employees.
The ads read, “a black day for Israeli democracy” in small white text at the bottom. Also in small text at the top was the word “advertisement,” according to JPost.
‘Israel’ Entering Civil War
In an interview with British news outlet Channel 4 News, former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, declared that ‘Israel’ is going into a civil war following Monday’s vote.
“There is a threat. This is a serious threat,” Olmert said. “It’s never happened before and we are going into a civil war now.”
“Moment of Truth”
Also on Tuesday, officials in the occupation military said they hope that the threat to refuse to serve made by volunteers in the Air Force and other elite IOF units, would not be carried out after the Knesset passed the bill, although at least 500 of them already notified their commanders, dozens in the hours after the vote. Thousands of pilots and officers said they would not serve a “non-democratic regime.”
According to officials, the military will have no more than a number of weeks, before the effects of the reservists’ absence is felt while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior commanders in the IOF hoped for a change of heart from those who fill critical military rolls, Ynet reported.
The officials said there is a concern over the effects of the legislation and the protests against it, weakening the IOF and impacting the unity of its members, including those currently serving, and hoped that Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and senior commanders would take action to calm tensions but warn that if the reservists follow through on their threat, the military will suffer.
Source: Israeli media
