2023 Israeli judicial reform protests
From January to October 2023, large-scale protests took place across Israel in response to the government's push for a wide-ranging judicial reform. The proposed reform aimed to give the government full control of the Supreme Court or court decisions through various ways. The government also attempted to dismantle the Israel Bar Association and change the makeup of the Judicial Selection Committee.
The reform was promoted by Justice Minister Yariv Levin with the backing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leaders of the other parties in the governing coalition, but was opposed by opposition parties as well as a large segment of the Israeli public. They were faced with questions on how much, if at all, they should focus on Palestinian rights. Statements by Israeli figures linked the aim of the reform to the expansion of Israeli settlements and further annexation of Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. The protests were effective in delaying the reform, and the ruling coalition would have lost 11 seats in a new round of elections according to polls published by September 2023. In July 2023, the Knesset passed a law to abolish the Supreme Court's ability to review government actions on grounds of reasonableness, but it was repealed by the Supreme Court on 1 January 2024.
The protests came to an end following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the ensuing Gaza war, with sporadic demonstrations continuing until the formation of a war cabinet on 12 October. The protests partially resumed later in 2023, as part of broader protests in the country related to the war.
Background
Since the political crisis beginning in 2018, multiple snap elections were held following unsuccessful attempts to form a governing coalition. The 2021 election was the first to have resulted in a successful government formation. The incumbent coalition, which held a one-seat majority, collapsed in June 2022 after a member defected. In the snap legislative election that followed, the incumbent government, led by Yair Lapid, was defeated by a coalition of right-wing parties, led by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who formed a new government that took office on 29 December 2022.On 4 January 2023, newly appointed Justice Minister Yariv Levin announced plans to reform Israel's judiciary, including limiting the power of the Supreme Court and of the government's legal councillors and granting the governing coalition a majority on the committee that appoints judges. Following the announcement, several organisations, including Crime Minister and Standing Together, announced their intention to organise protests in Tel Aviv on 7 January. On 17 January, the Supreme Court ruled that the recently appointed Interior Minister Aryeh Deri was unfit for the position due to his criminal record. Netanyahu, who was on trial for corruption-related charges himself, was forced to withdraw Deri.
After Netanyahu announced a pause in the judicial legislation on 27 March, counter-protesters started organising their own demonstrations, with tens of thousands protesting in favour of the changes. Negotiations aimed at reaching a compromise collapsed in June, and the government resumed its plans to pass parts of the legislation; in response, the anti-reform movement ramped up its activities.
The Jerusalem Post reported that funding for the anti-reform protests primarily came from the public, both in terms of small donations and through volunteer work; larger donors included tech entrepreneurs, as well as organizations including the New Israel Fund, Blue White Future, Our Way, and Commanders for Israel's Security. Supporters named in the article are Ilan Shiloah, Orni Petruschka, Itay Ben-Horin, and Idan Tendler.
Anti-reform demonstrations
7 January–11 February
The first protest took place on 7 January in Tel Aviv's Habima Square. It was initially organized by Standing Together, a socialist Arab-Jewish organisation, as a protest against the formation of the thirty-seventh government of Israel. Following Yariv Levin's announcement on 4 January that he planned to reform Israel's judiciary, other organisations, which included Crime Minister, joined the protest, leading a concurrent march from Habima. Omdim Beyachad's protest included Ayman Odeh as a guest speaker. The combined protests included approximately 20,000 people. In the meantime, a smaller protest took place in Haifa that was attended by 200 people. On 14 January, a second protest was organized at Habima, which was attended by approximately 80,000 protesters, and was joined by smaller rallies in Haifa and Jerusalem that were attended by several thousands.From 14 January to 11 February, protests against the reform were held on a weekly basis in Kaplan Street, alongside smaller protests in Jerusalem, Haifa, Beersheba, and other cities like Ness Ziona and Herzliya. The Kaplan protests were regularly attended by numbers ranging from 60,000 to 150,000 people. Protests in other cities regularly attracted smaller numbers.
13–25 February
On 8 February, the Chairman of the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee Simcha Rothman announced it would vote on referring several reforms to the Knesset Plenum on 13 February, including a law giving the coalition a majority on the judicial appointments committee. The previous day, several protest leaders, including former Chief of the General Staff Moshe Ya'alon and the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, announced their intention to organize a general strike and a protest outside the Knesset building on the same date, which was believed to be the vote's date before the announcement was made.More than 100,000 people gathered for protests in Jerusalem on 13 February, while individuals in several industries, including doctors and tech workers, went on strike. That day, the Constitution committee voted 9–7 in favor of the reforms.
Two more weekly protests were held on Saturdays in various cities around Israel, with a central protest in Kaplan. Both numbered over 100,000. The second protest was preceded by a performance of 150 members of Women Building an Alternative wearing red-and-white outfits resembling those worn by handmaids in the television series The Handmaid's Tale. The group appeared in protest against some of the proposed legal changes, which they believe will hurt women. These protests were joined by another protest on 20 February, where over 100,000 protesters gathered outside the Knesset in Jerusalem to protest against an initial plenum vote on several reform-related bills.
1–9 March
1 March was designated by protest organizers as a 'national day of disruption'. Protesters tried to block Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv, but police used stun grenades, mounted police, and water cannons against the demonstrators, and arrested several people. Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir both said that all protesters blocking the roads are anarchists who should be arrested. Later that evening, the Prime Minister's wife, Sara Netanyahu, was spotted at a hair salon in Tel Aviv. Protesters stood outside the salon for three hours while mounted police guarded the entrance until Netanyahu was escorted out by police.Additional protests took place on 4 and 8 March, with Channel 12 estimating that over 160,000 people attended the former protests, while Haaretz estimated that over 25,000 attended the latter. On 5 March 2023, El Al, the national airline of Israel, announced none of the El Al pilots volunteered to fly Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara on a state visit to Rome, in an apparent protest against his government.
On 8 March, for the occasion of International Women's Day, thousands of women dressed in red formed a human line on a beachfront of Tel Aviv to protest the planned reforms. Demonstrators at prior women's protests also dressed in red capes and white hoods, as characters from Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale. They condemned the government for the "Talibanization" of Israel. Protestors believe that the reform plan is "patriarchal and biased" and that women's legal rights are at stake more than they have been in years.
On 9 March, the protest movement led to what was referred to as a 'national day of resistance'. Protesters blocked roads and maritime routes, including one of the country's main highways, Ayalon, which connects all of the major traffic routes leading to Tel Aviv. Convoys of cars packed the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway and streamed toward Ben Gurion Airport's main terminal. The protest at the airport came hours before Netanyahu flew to Rome to meet Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Members of "Brothers In Arms", a reservist protest movement, blocked the entrance to the Kohelet Policy Forum offices in Givat Shaul with sandbags and barbed wire, in protest for their part in promoting the judicial reform. The movement's co-founder, Ron Scherf, was arrested and detained for questioning following the demonstration.
11–25 March
According to Globes, between 150,000 and 240,000 people protested in Tel Aviv against the reform on 11 March, alongside smaller protests in other cities. Another weekly protest took place on 18 March, which was attended by over 260,000 people. Yet another protest took place on 16 March, while smaller demonstrations took place on 21 and 22 March. On 23 March, protest leaders declared a 'national day of paralysis', a series of smaller protests and demonstrations in various Israeli cities.Another protest took place on 25 March in Tel Aviv, with over 195,000 participants according to Channel 12. Smaller protests took place in other cities such as Haifa, Beersheba and Beit Shemesh. On the same day, Israel's defense minister Yoav Gallant urged a pause in the judicial reform, stating that the growing social rift is a "clear, immediate and tangible threat to Israel's security." Gallant called for the halt before lawmakers were due to vote the following week on a central part of the government's proposals. The next day, Netanyahu announced his intention to fire Gallant.