TEL AVIV (ISRAEL) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – Israeli President Isaac Herzog said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahùs government should abandon proposed legislation to overhaul the country’s judiciary in favor of a model with broad national support.
Herzog has been mediating between the government and protesters.
“There are agreements over most issues, yes, not all, but the vast majority. Certainly enough to abandon the legislation currently proposed and bring in its place for discussion,” Herzog said in a televised address.
Despite the declaration by the Israeli President that a compromise in the government’s judicial overhaul plan could be imminent, protests against the reform continued to spread with tens of thousands of protesters returned to the streets.
Protesters have blocked roads and attempted to stop the prime minister flying out the country before taking off to Rome. Vehicles obstructed access roads to Ben Gurion airport. In Tel Aviv, thousands of protesters, many waving Israeli flags and carrying signs with slogans against the reforms, marched towards an intersection close to the city’s busiest road, the Ayalon highway. The protests are some of the biggest Israel has ever seen.
Local media circulated a letter by 10 former air force chiefs to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning of the “grave and tangible” threat posed by the judicial overhaul plan, a day after reservists said they would not turn up for training in protest. Netanyahu criticised the threats to refuse military service, which he said endangered Israel’s existence.
The plans by the hard-right government led by Netanyahu to pass a legislation that will cause a judicial overhaul has sparked uproar in Israel and alarm among the country’s Western allies. If the proposal passed, it would mean greater government control and influence in selecting judges and limit the power of the Supreme Court to strike down legislation.
Critics say the reforms will undermine democracy but the government is saying that the planned changes are better for the electorate.

– photo press office Quirinale –

(ITALPRESS).

Source: medNews