Israelis rally against Netanyahu cabinet

Some 20,000 Israelis took to the streets of “Tel Aviv” on Saturday to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, which has been criticized various times as being the most far-right government in Israeli history.

Protestors carried signs with slogans condemning the government and calling it a “government of shame”, calling for “bring[ing] down the dictator”, AFP reported.

The Israeli occupation forces estimated that some 20,000 protesters were on the street, with the organizers claiming there were “several tens of thousands” of protesters.

The demonstration is the biggest since the premier took office, with other rallies taking place in front of his residence in occupied Al-Quds and others in Haifa.

This is Netanyahu’s sixth term after he was ousted from power in June last year, ending his 12-year run as prime minister, making him the longest-running premier since the start of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

With Netanyahu coming back in, his third reign of terror will begin after having served as PM from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021. This is his most controversial government to date, expected to lead to a Third Palestinian Intifada.

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The demonstrators repeated chants against the new Israeli occupation government and some of its extremist ministers such as Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich.

Following his November 1 election win, Netanyahu took office late last month at the head of a coalition with extreme-right and Zionist parties, some of whose officials now head key ministries. The new occupation government has announced intentions to pursue a policy of settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.

Moreover, the protesters called on the corruption-embattled PM to resign from office just a month after he assumed.

“Bibi (Netanyahu) doesn’t want a democracy, we don’t need fascists in the Knesset,” one sign read at a protest in “Tel Aviv”.

Meanwhile, opposition parties called on Israelis to join the demonstrations to “save democracy” and protest Netanyahu’s planned overhaul of the judiciary authority.

This comes after Israeli occupation Justice Minister Yariv Levin announced earlier in the month a controversial plan to hand more powers to lawmakers in appointing judges and overriding Supreme Court decisions.

Illustrating the increasingly stark division between Israelis, the president of Israeli occupation’s Supreme Court Esther Hayut lashed out on Thursday at the “judicial reform plan” proposed by Netanyahu’s cabinet, stressing that it “would crush the justice system.”

Hayet begins her speech at a conference of the Israeli Association of Public Law, likely the harshest speech ever delivered by a serving Supreme Court president against a ruling coalition, by noting that “a few days ago, the new justice minister presented a lightning plan for far-reaching changes in the justice system.”

“In practice,” she charges, “it amounts to an unrestrained attack on the justice system, as though it was an enemy that had to be rushed and defeated.”

“With great cynicism, the architects of the plan call it a plan to correct the judicial system.’ And I say, it is a plan to crush the judicial system. It is intended to deliver a fatal blow to the independence and autonomy of the judicial system and silence it” she added.

The rally also included pro-Palestinian slogans, with one sign reading: “There’s no democracy with the occupation.”

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Political divisions in “Israel” between the government and the opposition are escalating in light of the exchange of accusations of responsibility for the possible outbreak of an “internal war”.

This comes shortly after leaders within the Israeli occupation spoke about the ongoing division in “Israel” exposed by the results of the latest legislative elections.

Israeli occupation President Isaac Herzog said during a speech on the 27th anniversary of the killing of former Israeli occupation Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin that “the complicated political status quo in Israel poses somewhat of a historic challenge for us.”

Meanwhile, former Israeli occupation Security Minister Benny Gantz called on Sunday Israelis to take to the streets in protest of changes to the Israeli judicial system that Netanyahu’s cabinet proposed.