WEST BANK (Dispatches) – Tens of thousands held massive demonstrations on Saturday against Zionist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new cabinet that protesters say will threaten the regime’s future.
The demonstration was the largest so far since Netanyahu returned to power last month at the head of the most right-wing cabinet in the regime’s history.
More than 100,000 people took part in the demonstration, with participants warning that his extremist cabinet’s proposed so-called judicial reforms were set to give the regime more control over appointments in the judiciary.
Netanyahu has dismissed the protests, which are now in their third week, as a refusal by leftist opponents to accept the results of last November’s election, which produced one of the most extremist cabinets in the regime’s history.
Former Zionist prime minister, Yair Lapid, also joined tens of thousands of protesters in the Saturday rally.
The Tel Aviv demonstration also drew opponents to the regime’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, as many cabinet members are ardent supporters of settlement expansion across the West Bank.
The 73-year-old prime minister has already released a policy statement on the part of his cabinet, calling expansion of the settlements across the occupied Palestinian territories a top priority.
Saturday’s protest also came days after the supreme court ordered the premier to fire interior minister Aryeh Deri, who leads the Shas party, over a recent tax conviction.
The court ruled that Deri’s appointment was “extremely unreasonable,” coming only months after he was fined and relinquished his parliamentary seat.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu fired a key cabinet ally on Sunday, heeding a supreme court ruling commanding him to do so and deepening a rift over the power of the courts.
Netanyahu announced he was firing Aryeh Deri, who serves as interior and health minister, at a meeting of his cabinet. The regimes supreme court decided last week Deri could not serve as a Cabinet minister because of a conviction last year over tax offenses.
The court ruling came as Israel is mired in a dispute over the power of the judiciary.