Fiery but mostly peaceful protests broke out in Israel on Sunday night after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired a high-ranking defense minister for opposing his push to turn Israel into a full-blown Jewish supremacist dictatorship.
JUST IN – Massive protest in Israel after PM Netanyahu fired defense minister who opposed judicial overhaul pic.twitter.com/q0Vdcm4U0m
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) March 26, 2023
Israel’s Netanyahu Sacks the Defence Minister.
Mass protests throughout Tel Aviv against the judicial overhaul.
There are protests outside Netanyahu’s house in Jerusalem. pic.twitter.com/1yNMA1pIAU
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) March 26, 2023
WATCH: Police use water cannons on demonstrators outside Prime Minister Netanyahu’s house pic.twitter.com/dEYrCaagsU
— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) March 26, 2023
⚡️South Ayalon Street in Tel Aviv. pic.twitter.com/6jn7P44hzY
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) March 26, 2023
⚡️Channel 13 reporter Yossi Eli got hit pic.twitter.com/VRIvPEqaZH
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) March 26, 2023
⚡️In front of the Knesset (parliament) now pic.twitter.com/VKIm7TdYFh
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) March 26, 2023
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) March 26, 2023
⚡️Occupied Tel Aviv, a few moments ago. pic.twitter.com/IwSS0Z3ray
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) March 26, 2023
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) March 26, 2023
It’s so beautiful… pic.twitter.com/TXMMYfJwW8
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) March 26, 2023
⚡️One of the highways in Yafa pic.twitter.com/pZPTrxSzXg
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) March 26, 2023
⚡️#BREAKING The police chief of the Tel Aviv district joined the demonstrations against Netanyahu pic.twitter.com/YoAr3qJO3S
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) March 26, 2023
From RT, “Netanyahu fires defense minister”:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, on Sunday, less than a day after Gallant attempted to put the brakes on the PM’s controversial effort to overhaul the nation’s judiciary system. Massive protests soon broke out condemning the move.
Gallant was the first in Netanyahu’s cabinet to break ranks with the PM over his full-speed-ahead proposal to seize greater control over the selection of Supreme Court justices and restrict the court’s power over the Knesset. The plan has been condemned both internationally and domestically, driving a wedge between the PM’s office and the military.
The defense minister warned that the unrest over the PM’s planned power-grab was putting Israel’s national security at risk, and that therefore he could not support it. “The rift within our society is widening and penetrating the Israeli Defense Forces,” causing “a clear and immediate and tangible danger to the security of the state,” Gallant declared in a televised speech on Saturday. “I shall not be a party to this.”
Netanyahu announced his dismissal less than 24 hours later in a one-line statement on Sunday, setting off a firestorm of protest. Thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets of Jerusalem to denounce what is widely perceived as unconscionable overreach by the PM. Protesters blocked Tel Aviv’s Ayalon highway in both directions, while others gathered outside the homes of Likud Party MKs and other high-ranking officials.
A group of universities announced a general strike, while the director general of the Defense Ministry cut short his trip to the US to return home. Israel’s consul general in New York, Asaf Zamir, announced his resignation via Twitter, vowing to “join the fight for Israel’s future to ensure it remains a beacon of democracy and freedom in the world.”
Gallant, a former naval commando, had repeatedly warned his boss that many in the IDF had threatened to walk off the job, temporarily or permanently, should his proposal become law. While the military has not revealed exact statistics on how many fewer reservists reported for duty this month compared to previous months, it confirmed receiving a letter from 200 reserve pilots announcing they would sit out the next two weeks of duty in protest of Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.Gen. Herzi Halevi had even admitted reservists were stretched thin enough that it might have to pare back certain operations, government officials told the New York Times earlier this week – a possibility that would be unthinkable to the belligerent PM.
Netanyahu came out last week to once again condemn Donald Trump for his “horrible” dinner with Kanye “Ye” West and Nick Fuentes but in his own country he has filled his cabinet to the brim with far-right Jewish supremacists who make America’s far-right look like moderates.
Whereas the “far-right” in America is debating immigration restrictions, abortion and pushing for bans on child sex-changes, the far-right in Israel is debating whether or not to jail Christians en masse and imprison them for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The far-right in Israel is leading anti-Palestinian pogroms, calling for entire Palestinian villages to be “wiped out” and claiming “there’s no such thing as Palestinians because there’s no such thing as a Palestinian people.”
They’re currently debating whether or not to overthrow their Supreme Court because the justices think minorities should be afforded a few meager rights.
According to the latest reports, right-wing activists in Israel are “using Whatsapp and other social media platforms to call on supporters to take up arms and use vehicles to attack anti-government protesters.”
“In one group, known as ‘The Unapologetic Right’, a member called on protesters to to bring ‘gasoline, explosives, tractors, guns and knives,’” The Middle East Eye reports.
A group of Jewish supremacists were filmed setting a Palestinian home ablaze in the occupied West Bank on Sunday night.
Israeli settlers set a Palestinian home ablaze north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Sunday.
Eyewitnesses said settlers attacked the house with Molotov cocktails, burning some of the rooms, while the family was able to escape. pic.twitter.com/azypO6DYkp
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) March 26, 2023
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