On Saturday, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in Tel Aviv and other cities for the 28th week in a row to demonstrate against Prime Minister Netanyahu’s planned legislation to gut the powers of the country’s Supreme Court.
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment
On the eve of Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s controversial visit to the United States, which several members of Congress say they will boycott, Israeli society is coming apart at the seams. The presidency in Israel is a purely symbolic post. Power resides with the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu and his extremist cabinet, which comprises open racists and fascists. His government’s expansion of Israeli squatter-settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank has drawn a rebuke from President Joe Biden, who says he’s never seen such a far-right government in Israel in all his years in office (which is a lot of years).
Last Thursday, Israelis demonstrated in front of the US Embassy in Israel, demanding that the United States pressure Netanyahu to back off his plan to gut the country’s supreme court. They said they feared the change would harm US-Israeli relations.
On Saturday, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Democratic Progressive Caucus, denounced Israel as a racist state. She clarified on Sunday that she only meant that the current Netanyahu government is racist, not that the idea of Israel is. I don’t think that remark will mollify the Israel lobbies, but the episode shows how alienated some corners of the American political scene have become from the horror show in Tel Aviv.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in Tel Aviv and other cities for the 28th week in a row to demonstrate against Prime Minister Netanyahu’s planned legislation to gut the powers of the country’s Supreme Court. They also announced that they would devote the coming week to disruptions, including of the rails.
Recent Posts
Critics Slam Meeks, Jeffries Pushing Off War Powers Bill Just as It Gets Enough Votes to Pass
Take Action Now “Each day we delay increases the risk of deeper US involvement and more lives lost,” said one progressive policy adviser. “Failing to…
The SAVE America Act Would Rig Our Elections
Take Action Now The bill would prevent millions of eligible Americans from voting — all to pave the way for authoritarianism and bigotry.By Jordan…
The Theft of Bodily Autonomy is Central to the Authoritarian Playbook, and Texas Has Been Its Proving Ground
Take Action Now Texas houses the country’s only family detention centers and has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the U.S., but it is…
Humanity Owes Cuba: Unilateral Coercive Measures and the Politics of Punishment
Take Action Now “There can be no clearer example of a violation of human rights than the economic embargo imposed by the United States against……