As Israel begins festivities celebrating the 75th anniversary of its founding, thousands demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening, April 25. Gathered where Israelis have been protesting weekly for four months against the reform of the judiciary wanted by Benjamin Netanyahu's government – considered undemocratic by its critics – the demonstrators called for an "independence day".
Waving Israeli flags, they chanted the slogan "democracy" before popular singers animated the festive evening, like other cities in the country where stages were set up with free concerts in the streets.
In a speech broadcast on a giant screen at the start of the ceremony in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for unity.
"Only united, we can achieve our goals... To be united is to know that we have one people and one state and we do not have and we will not have another land," he said.
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A mobilization still strong
The ceremony that opens the festivities in Jerusalem was uneventful, despite fears that anti-reform activists would disrupt it.
Benjamin Netanyahu announced on March 27 a legislative "pause" to give a "chance [...] to dialogue", after an intensification of protest, the beginning of a general strike and the appearance of tensions within the majority. But the mobilization against the reform remains strong, its critics believing that it risks opening the way to an illiberal or authoritarian drift.
For the government, on the contrary, the text aims, among other things, to rebalance powers by reducing the prerogatives of the Supreme Court, which the executive considers politicized, to the benefit of Parliament.
Supporters of the reform are scheduled to rally Thursday night outside Israel's parliament, the Knesset.
With AFP
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