Israeli protesters blocked highways and gathered outside Tel Aviv's stock exchange and military headquarters on Tuesday in t🎉he latest countrywide demonstration against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned judicial overhaul.
The latest “day of disruption” came as longtime allies of the prim𝐆e minister pushed a contentious piece of legislation through a parliamentary commi꧙ttee ahead of a vote expected next week.
Ad𒀰ditional protests are plannedജ throughout the day.
D🧸emonstrators, many of them military reservists, created human chains and blocked one of the entrances to the Kirya, Israel's military ♔headquarters in central Tel Aviv.
Netanyahu heads the most ultranationalist and religiously conservative government in Israel's 75-year history. He proposed a series of drastic changes to the country's judiciary shortly after taking office in December. His government took office in the aftermath of the country's fifth elections in under four years, all of them regarded as referendums on ꧑his fitness to serve as prime minister while on trial for corruption.
The weekly mass pro🔯tests led Netanyahu to suspend the overhaul in March but he decided to revive the plan last month after compromise talks with the political opposition collapsed.
The proposed laws would grant lawmakers greater control over ⭕the appointment of judges a🤡nd give parliament the power to overturn high court decisions and pass laws impervious to judicial review.
The bill making its way through parliament this week would eliminate the Suprem🐻e Court's ability to strike down government decisions it deems unreasonable. Judges used that “reasonability clause” to annul a key Netanyahu ally's appointment as interior minister after accepting a plea deal for tax evasion in 2021.
He and his allies say the measur🌼es are necessary to curb an o𝓰ver-activist Supreme Court comprised of unelected judges. Critics say the judicial overhaul will concentrate power in the hands of Netanyahu and his allies and undermine the country's system of checks and balances.
They also say Netanyahu has a conflict of intere♏st because he is on trial for charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes
