When the Netanyahu government’s plan to drastically weaken Israel’s Supreme Court finally collapsed, it came very quickly.
At 8.57 on Sunday evening, Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman sent a curt text message to reporters saying: “The Prime Minister has decided to remove Defence minister Yoav Galant from his post.”
Within seconds, the WhatsApp groups that have been the main engines behind the protest movement against the government’s “legal reform” sprang into action.
“Everyone to Gaza Street”, said the Jerusalem groups, meaning Netanyahu’s private residence. “Everyone to Kaplan” directed Tel Avivians to the main street next to the Defence Ministry, leading to the Ayalon Freeway. Protesters quickly fanned out to 150 locations across Israel.
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Benjamin Netanyahu’s TV address to the nation
Sunday had not been scheduled as night of protests. But by 10pm, tens of thousands were streaming back, with hundreds besieging Netanyahu’s penthouse on Gaza Street.
By Monday, workers from across Israel had walked out, following calls for a general strike by the Israeli trade unions.
And at 8.15pm, nearly 24 hours after Galant’s dismissal, the prime minister appeared on television and called for a “time out”. The cry among jubilant protesters was that it was “game over” for the judicial reform.
But just as President Isaac Herzog hosted talks between the political factions in an effort to find a compromise on the role of the Supreme Court, Netanyahu was promising his coalition partners there will be legislation in the Knesset summer session.
Whatever happens next, Netanyahu is unlikely to choose a re-run of the past three months: there has been damage to Israel’s society, security and economy — and Likud has lost nearly 30 per cent of its voters in the polls.
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Protesters in Tel Aviv (Getty Images)
The nationwide surge of protests on Sunday night was not a display of support for the deposed defence minister. Galant had been derided by the protesters for many weeks for his silence and some had gathered around his house.
A group of veteran naval commandos, the unit was once commanded by former General Galant, even held an underwater demonstration with waterproof signs calling on him to act.
He did, finally, on Saturday night, just as Netanyahu was giving a pre-recorded interview to Piers Morgan in the Savoy Hotel in London. Continuing with the legislation, Galant said in a televised statement, “poses a clear, immediate, and tangible threat to the security of the state”. He would not be voting for it.
Netanyahu landed in Israel in the early hours of Sunday. The weekly cabinet meeting that was originally scheduled for the afternoon had been cancelled.
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Demonstrators clash with police in Tel Aviv (Getty Images)
The prime minister did not want his Defence minister to repeat the warnings he had sounded the previous week in front of the other ministers.
Galant had spoken about the dangerous levels of demoralisation in the security forces and the thousands of reservists who had said they would not continue their volunteer service, a statement backed up by IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi and Shin Bet Chief Ronen Bar. So Netanyahu summoned Galant alone to his office and told him he had lost confidence in him.
The Sunday protests were against the way Netanyahu had so blatantly disregarded his defence chiefs’ warnings. There was an anger and a steely determination that had not been present in the previous protests. And the police were unprepared. In Tel Aviv, thousands occupied the Ayalon highway almost until dawn, using fencing to block the mounted police.
Netanyahu’s penthouse flat was besieged from all directions. Thousands blocked either end of Gaza Road. Many more stood in the park opposite.
Even the downstairs neighbours joined in, with flags, placards and jeering from the balcony. Only a handful of police officers and Shin Bet bodyguards were there when the protests began and the road was blocked to reinforcements for over an hour.
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Yoav Galant
If the crowd had wanted to storm Netanyahu’s home there would have been no stopping them. But they were there just to register their anger. Two police horses cantered in circles, their riders uncertain in which direction to stand.
A lone police water cannon arrived from east Jerusalem, but the water and foam it fired at the protesters did not budge them. The water soon ran out as the large vehicle inched forward, making way for dozens of officers of Jerusalem Police’s tactical unit.
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Protests against Netanyahu in London (Getty Images)
They had been summoned from their positions near the Al Aqsa Mosque on Temple Mount, where they were on high alert at the start of Ramadan. Yet more proof of the irresponsibility in firing the Defence minister during such a tense period.
Shortly before midnight, they secured the street outside the building. Shin Bet Chief Ronen Bar also turned up.
Netanyahu was still in his office but he had been sent to put Sara Netanyahu’s mind at rest. The prime minister’s media proxies were trying to shift the blame onto the security service, accusing them of “endangering” him.
But he was already losing the briefing battles. Senior Likud ministers, including those who were normally Bibi loyalists, were also briefing that Netanyahu had to announce in the morning that he was suspending the legislation and restoring Galant to his post. It was game over.
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Netanyahu meeting Rishi Sunak during his visit to London this week Simon Walker)
Matters had seemed very different just a few hours earlier. In the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, they were wrapping up the law, changing the composition of the Judicial Appointments Committee in the coalition’s favour. Committee Chairman Simcha Rothman, who had shepherded — or, as the opposition saw it — bulldozed the legislation through the committee, preparing it for the final readings, seemed finally at ease.
That morning he had thrown most of the opposition members out of the committee for arguing with him, as he had in nearly every committee morning since the Knesset was inaugurated. But, by early afternoon, things were much calmer.
The opposition had raised 5,400 objections to the law and, in his monotonous voice, he dealt with them one by one. As he did so, the coalition members dutifully voted them down.
Only three opposition members were there, keeping up appearances. In a short break in the voting, a tired Rothman joked with me that it was a pity he does not drink.
The coalition had relied on him for the past three months to push the constitutional changes through, and now it was down to just one vote. Without that, the whole tempestuous winter session would have been for nothing.
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A placard at a protest outside Netanyahu's Jerusalem home (Getty Images).
He was not worried by Galant’s statement the previous evening. “Netanyahu won’t pull the rug out under me,” he promised.
“This is going through.” He was wary, however, of saying when the final vote would be held in the plenum. Sunday, April 2 — the last day of the winter session — was the deadline to get it over the line.
A lawyer like Justice minister Levin — who has long been calling for limiting the power and independence of the Supreme Court — Rothman has been a Knesset member for less than two years.
But over the past three months, he has been the MK with most media exposure. He has been reviled by the opposition as a petty tyrant, and admired for his tenacity by the government’s supporters.
“Rothman is still naïve enough to trust Netanyahu,” whispered one of the committee members, a Knesset veteran.
“Bibi will keep him guessing until the last minute next Sunday, whether or not he will allow him to bring the law to vote. And then he’ll abandon him.” The MK was right, except it would happen much sooner.
By Monday morning, Netanyahu’s aides were not even trying to hide he was about to announce a suspension of the legislation. Rothman even suspended the committee meeting.
What was not clear was when. The Histadrut Trade Union Federation and the main employers had got together, for the first time in Israel’s history, to announce a general strike until the process was paused. The last time the unions and employers agreed on striking, the British Empire was still in charge.
Every hour that passed was costing the Israeli economy hundreds of millions. The Biden administration had been informed of the impending suspension.
Ministers were briefing the Israeli and international media that there was an opportunity, through dialogue with the opposition, to reach a constitutional breakthrough.
Still the nation waited.
Finally, at 8.15pm, nearly 24 hours after Galant’s dismissal, the prime minister appeared on television and called for a “time out”. What had taken so long?
The delay was down to two connected factors. The entire coalition had accepted the legislation could not go ahead.
At least, not now. All, that is, except Jewish power and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who threatened to resign if the hated Supreme Court was not suppressed.
As evening fell he relented, but not before he extricated a written commitment from Netanyahu for the formation of “national guard” which would directly be answerable to him.
It is probably an empty promise, to give Ben-Gvir bragging rights. There are no funds available or personnel for his private militia.
And, of course, there are major legal issues with having an independent force not under the national police command. But it highlights Ben-Gvir’s authoritarian ambitions.
The other reason for delay was a rally, this time by supporters of the government, which was hastily being organised for that evening, outside the Supreme Court. Netanyahu wanted in his speech to be able to claim that the “legal reform” had wide support as well.
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Right-wing protesters (Flash 90)
The turnout was impressive — tens of thousands— though few looked like Likud voters. Most were religious settlers, voters of Religious Zionism.
But there was another group who kept apart from the men in kippot and women with scarves.
The thugs of La Familia were out in force. The ultra supporters of Beitar Jerusalem, who in the past had burned down the football club’s offices when a previous owner dared to sign up Muslim players to the “forever pure” team, have long ago expanded beyond “sport”.
They have become a far-right political militia, with cells across the country. La Familia is on the Shin Bet’s “Jewish department” radar and there have been calls to designate it a terror organisation — unthinkable under a Likud government.
Three armed members driving to Jerusalem were arrested on the road by a Shin Bet team.
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Itamar Ben-Gvir speaking in the Knesset (Flash 90)
Even if Mr Ben-Gvir does not get his private militia, he has one in La Familia.
And the Jerusalem rally was not a one-off. Later that night, they arrived in Tel Aviv, clashing with police and protesters on Kaplan.
For the past three months, it has been the government’s opponents on the streets. Mr Netanyahu has promised “a true dialogue” — but his aides are planning a series of protests of their own.
Which is a perfectly democratic thing to do. But if they’re accompanied by La Familia, things are about to get a lot uglier.
