Israel is suspended Monday from an announcement by its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the justice reform project, which divides the country and against which tens of thousands of people are demonstrating in Jerusalem after a call for a "general strike".
Netanyahu is due to address the nation at 8:05 p.m. (1705 GMT), according to his office.
A crowd, estimated at 80,000 demonstrators according to Israeli media, gathered Monday afternoon around the Parliament in Jerusalem to protest against the reform. A counter-demonstration, the first of its kind, was held not far from there, in front of the Supreme Court, bringing together several thousand people, according to an AFP journalist.
Other protests against the reform took place in Tel Aviv and Haifa, in northern Israel.
Since the morning, Israelis have been hanging on to an announcement by the Prime Minister on a potential pause in the legislative process aimed at passing a justice reform that is dividing society and now weakening the majority in power.
Faced with the scale of the mobilization in front of Parliament, one of the demonstrators, Trevor Falor, 52, an entrepreneur in the tourism sector, was enthusiastic: "It's total madness (to see) all these authorities (and these people from) all jurisdictions, from the military, from the financial sector, and from all sectors in Israel saying that this reform (…) is absolutely crazy.”
"We call on the government to stop this crazy reform," said Keren Mimran, 57, a high-tech entrepreneur, who says she is in favor of a strike of "all sectors of the economy".
And to add: "We want equality, we want a Constitution, we want a declaration of human rights".
Arnon Bar David, leader of the Histadrut, the country's largest trade union federation, called Monday morning for a general strike aimed at "stopping the process of legislation" on the reform.
The main employers' organizations distanced themselves from the call for a strike, while calling for dialogue and "the immediate cessation of the legislative process".
But, very rarely, private businesses - banks, insurance companies, clothing and restaurant chains - have decided to close.
The strike forced Ben-Gurion International Airport to announce the suspension of outgoing flights as tens of thousands of people were expected to leave the country on Monday.
In the morning, President Isaac Herzog called on the government to "immediately stop" legislative work on the judicial reform project, after a night marked by clashes between protesters and police in Tel Aviv.
Mr. Herzog plays an essentially ceremonial role and his repeated calls to find a compromise solution on the reform have so far been without effect and have not prevented the country from slipping little by little into crisis. He had recently worried about a risk of "civil war".
Thousands of people took to the streets in Tel Aviv on Sunday evening after Mr Netanyahu sacked his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, who had publicly pleaded the day before for a pause in reform, expressing fears for Israel's security.
These fears are linked to the massive participation of army reservists in the protest movement and their commitment not to go to training and not to serve their reserve periods in the event of a vote on judicial reform.
The reform project proposed by the government of Mr. Netanyahu, one of the most right-wing in the history of Israel, aims to increase the power of elected officials over that of judges.
Contested in the street for almost three months, he is at the origin of one of the greatest popular mobilization movements in the history of Israel.
Critics of the reform believe that it risks jeopardizing the democratic principles in use in Israel.
Strong allies of Israel, the United States declared themselves "deeply concerned", and underlined "the urgent need for a compromise".
In France, the country where the largest Jewish community lives after Israel and the United States, the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (Crif) called on the Israeli government "to suspend the reform" in order to "restore calm as quickly as possible. and dialogue with the whole of society".
"The Israeli government has suffered a hostile takeover by a messianic, nationalist and anti-democratic group. They won't stop on their own... What will stop them is you. Your determination," Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid told protesters.
27/03/2023 19:14:54 - Jerusalem (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
