TEL AVIV (Dispatches) -- The latest protest against the occupying regime of Israel’s controversial judicial plans packed central Tel Aviv, as divisions persist just days before lawmakers return to parliament.
Opponents of the changes have kept up demonstrations in the commercial hub and across the occupied territories since January, despite prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu putting the controversial program on ice a month ago.
“History has its eyes on you,” read a placard held aloft at the rally in Tel Aviv, where demonstrators lit flares in the latest show of political discontent.
The Zionist society has been deeply split over the plan, which seeks to weaken the supreme court and hand politicians greater influence over the selection of judges.
Netanyahu’s extremist regime argues the proposals are necessary to rebalance power between the judiciary and elected officials, while opponents say they represent a threat and puts the illegal entity on the verge of disintegration.
The weekly rallies have repeatedly drawn hundreds of thousands onto the streets of Tel Aviv.
The protesters gathered against the backdrop of cross-party talks hosted by president Isaac Herzog this month, which have sought to reach a compromise on the plan.
The negotiations were launched after Netanyahu announced a halt to the plan on March 27 “out of a desire to prevent a rift” in the face of mass protests and a general strike.
However, the opposition has remained skeptical of the premier’s intentions and no compromise has been reached.
With parliament due to hold an opening session Monday after a recess, both backers of the reform and its detractors have sought to keep up the pressure on politicians.
The architect of the change, minister Yariv Levin, addressed thousands of supporters who rallied in Al-Quds on Thursday.
The event was also attended by extremist finance minister Betzalel Smotrich, who vowed the regime will not “give up” on the plan.
The cabinet ministers are part of a coalition of right-wing, extreme-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties which took office in late December.
President Herzog has warned of a brewing “civil war” and an approaching “abyss” if a compromise on the radical judicial changes could not be reached.
“Those who think that a real civil war, with human lives, is a border we won’t cross, have no idea,” he has said. In the Zionist regime’s 75th year, “the abyss is within touching distance,” he said. “A civil war is a red line. At any price, and by any means, I won’t let it happen.”
Last month, Herzog told the general assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America in Tel Aviv, “I am convinced that there is no greater existential threat to our people than the one that comes from within: Our own polarization and alienation from one another.”
The standoff has opened up profound questions about the illegal entity that go beyond the makeup of the supreme court and the power of the executive to override its decisions.
Behind his anxiety lies a fear of a sharp deepening of divisions which have always existed in Occupied Palestine between European Ashkenazis and Middle Eastern Mizrahi, between religious Al-Quds and laid back Tel Aviv and between right-wing settlers and urban liberals.
The growing power of the extremist parties that helped Netanyahu to power last year has alarmed many secular Zionists, who often resent the special conditions and subsidies that enable many Orthodox men to avoid military service and study in Torah schools rather than take paid employment.
According to a survey by Channel 12 News last week, around 51% of Zionists are pessimistic about the future of the entity.