'Day of paralysis' in Israel, as Knesset adopts anti-impeachment law
Organizers of the anti-judicial overhaul plan are expecting half a million demonstrators today across Israel, rallying, blocking roads and marching through cities.
Protesters across Israel have been blocking roads and rallying outside homes of Cabinet ministers since early Thursday, in what organizers of the anti-judicial overhaul movement have declared “a day of paralysis.”
The demonstrations are taking place as the government accelerates the process to adopt the controversial judicial overhaul package before the end of the current Knesset session on April 2. The bills would see Israel's court system undermined in favor of the political elite.
On Wednesday night, the Knesset adopted at second and third readings the Incapacitation Law, which prevents Israel's attorney general from declaring an incumbent prime minister unfit to serve. The controversial bill is now adopted as law of the land in a narrow majority of 61 to 47 votes in the chamber.
Israel's attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara had ordered sitting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to deal directly with the details of the judicial overhaul because of his ongoing corruption trial that presents a conflict of interest. The new law paves the way for Netanyahu to get openly involved in the plan, as the prime minister could hence be impeached only for health reasons and with a special majority.
