Putting words into action

In September 1982, there was a series of demonstrations in Jerusalem: a march that ended at the knesset. This was in response to the Sabra and Shatila massacre, and the entire (first) Lebanese war. Obviously my memory is at fault because apparently the demonstrations that I recall took place in February 1983. At that time I was studying accountancy near Netanya so maybe I wasn't too free to take place. The week before I did go, the demonstration resulted in the death of Emil Grunzweig, thrown by an Israeli right winger. The following week, the size of the demonstration doubled. Even so, I came away with a feeling of a wasted evening: all I did was walk a kilometre or so in Jerusalem.

Today I returned to Jerusalem in order to demonstrate against the judicial reforms: today, The Knesset Constitution Committee has approved the first stage of the government's judicial overhaul. The amendment to the law on the changes to the composition of the panel which chooses Supreme Court judges was passed by the votes of 9 MKs from the coalition while 7 MKs from the opposition voted against. The amendment, which will allow the government to choose future Supreme Court justices, will now move on to a first reading in the Knesset plenum.

This is despite an empassioned plea by the President yesterday evening for the coalition to suspend its plans for some time in order to allow some form of dialogue to take place. But no: the coalition (and especially two people, Justice Minister [some joke] Yariv Levin and chairman of the Constitution committe, Simha Rothman, seem determined to pass the new laws, regardless of how many people may be against them. 

Two people are holding the country to ransom.

The Prime Minister is barred from taking an active role in all this as at the moment he is involved in a court case where he has been charged with receiving bribes, etc. This is, as the Americans would say, an 'easy out' for him, as any requests for him to take action are refused because of conflict of interests. Despite this, he requested that the Attorney General release him from this bar; she apparently refused.

Estimates vary as to how many people took part in the demonstration today: anywhere between 60,000 and 100,000. Not only that, as I was leaving, more people were coming in, so the total number of participants will certainly be higher than any one-moment estimate.

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This day in history:

Blog #	Date	Title	Tags
452	13/02/2012	Gateway	Gateway
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926	13/02/2016	ERP thoughts	DBA