Your Weekly Israel News Roundup, March 10, 2023
5 things you need to know
Day Of Resistance: The protest against the judicial revolution is growing rapidly and demonstrations are more intense. Thursday was declared as a Day of Resistance, when hundred of thousands of people all over the country went out to disrupt daily routines in a variety of ways: road blocks, marches in main streets and highways at tens of locations around the country.
One of the targets of the demonstrators was PM Netanyahu, who was on his way to Rome, Italy on Thursday. First El Al airlines could not find pilots and crew to serve the flight, because all relevant pilots refused to serve PM Netanyahu. Finally the company located a team that would fly him. Tens of protesters gathered near his house in Jerusalem to try to prevent him from reaching the airport. Later hundreds of cars were seen driving towards the Ben Gurion terminal to try and prevent the flight. The PM and his wife had to get there by helicopter, an unusual means to reach the airport for the Israeli PM who usually travels by car.
Another main demonstration focus point was Kaplan street in Tel Aviv, that drew tens of thousands of people who blocked the main road for hours.
Last week there was growing resistance from different army units. These protests drew a lot of public and media attention since this is the first time in Israeli history in which protesters rally around their army units. The main group protesting are fighter pilots who declared that they will not report for their routine training. Right wing politicians expressed their resentment at the protestors and cursed them.
Meanwhile the judiciary process proceeds apace rapidly in the Knesset with a variety of bills that if passed, will turn Israel into a dictatorship and will eliminate the separation of powers between the three state agencies: judicial, executive and legislative (the Knesset). Meanwhile President Herzog and others are intensively working to reach an agreement and an agreed upon outline that will enable the legislation of some reforms in the judicial system while preventing any changes to the checks and balances between the state agencies.
President Herzog addressed the nation in a live broadcast, in which he said that his efforts to reach an agreement have failed so far. Herzog added that the proposed legislation should be eliminated from consideration since all the proposals are deeply offensive to the core of democracy.
A Terrorist Attack in Tel Aviv, With Three Israelis Wounded, Israeli Military Forces Continue to Operate in the West Bank, killing nine Palestinians: three Israelis were injured in a terrorist attack in one of the most popular places in Tel Aviv, Dizengoff Street, before the Hamas shooter was killed by police. Earlier this week six Palestinians were killed in a military operation on Wednesday, and three more on Thursday early morning as part of the continuing attempts to prevent terrorist attacks against Israelis. The West Bank was under closure for three days during the Jewish holiday Purim. No Palestinians were able to cross the checkpoint into Israeli controlled areas and into sovereign Israel during the closure, not even daily workers.
There is growing tension in the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories) around the holy Muslim month of Ramadan which starts later this month.
Israeli intelligence and army experts warn of an escalation in violence.
Earlier this week tens of settlers gathered at the center of Palestinian Hawara, and were seen celebrating and dancing with IDF soldiers.
Israeli Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich Attempted to Minimize the Damage Done by His Statements: Smotrich stated last week in a public interview that he thinks that the Palestinian village Hawara should by eliminated. Hawara is the village from which a terrorist went and murdered two young Jewish settlers last week and in which settlers executed a pogrom setting fire to tens of houses and cars. Smotrich is on his way to Washington DC for an Israel Bonds event. The Biden administration condemned his statement on Hawara and announced that no American official will meet him while in the US. There was even a call to US officials to prevent his entry to the US. Smotrich later published a long post on Facebook, trying to minimize the damage.
Israel Marks International Women’s Day:  more than 25,000 women in red took to the streets and junctions around the country to protest the judicial overhaul and to mark international women’s day. As the protest movement against the judicial overhaul continues to grow, more attention is now given to the far reaching implications of the weakening of the civil judicial system and the expansion of the authority of Rabbinic courts over women.
Gender and feminist researchers and activists claim that the judicial overhaul will exacerbate gender segregation in academia, public transportation and public spaces. Furthermore, it will undermine the rights of low-income women employed by religious institutions, who will be forced to settle labor rights disputes in religious courts. The conservative stance that the current government is championing will also set back women’s representation in public and political institutions.
According to the 2022 Gender Index published annually by WIPS (Women in the Public Sphere) the deepest gender gap exists in political and economic power, and this gap is bound to grow in 2023, with fewer women in government and only one woman director general in a government ministry, out of 25.
One of Israel Most Acclaimed Actors, Chaim Topol, Passed Away aged 87: Topol is known all over the world as the legendary Tevye the Milkman from the award winning movie and Broadway show Fiddler on the Roof. Topol was an actor in another Israeli legendary film by Efrain Kishon, Salah Shabati that told the story of the Moroccan immigration to Israel and the cultural gap between them and the people from a neighboring Kibbutz. Â
Further reading:
Judiciary Revolution: Here, here, here, here, here
West Bank: Here, here, here, here
Minister of Finance: Here, here, here, here