More than 150,000 Israelis have taken to the streets to protest for the 28th consecutive Saturday against the judicial reform promoted by the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu, while fears of a increasingly violent polarization in Israel, as the initiative moves through Parliament. This mobilization is the prelude to a new ‘Resistance Day’, which was called for next Tuesday, and which will mark “an unprecedented week of civil resistance and disobedience,” according to leaders of the protest movement.

With drums, bugles and bonfires, the demonstrations this Saturday had their usual epicenter in Tel Aviv, where some 150,000 people have gathered to block the main avenues. In addition, thousands of people have carried out protests in major cities, such as Haifa or Jerusalem, where the demonstrators they reached the official residence of Netanyahu amidst a tide of Israeli flags. However, the president is admitted to a hospital near Tel Aviv, after he was rushed due to dehydration.

Netanyahu and his ultra-Orthodox and ultra-nationalist associates announced in January a judicial reform that seeks to give more power to the executive to the detriment of Justice. Since then, the country has polarized and a historic protest movement arose that brings together various sectors -academics, bankers, the military and businessmen from the thriving technology sector-, who consider that the reform would end the separation of powerswould limit individual liberties, would have serious economic consequences, and would reduce the powers of the Supreme Court, which would lead Israel towards autocracy.

Fear of a possible civil war

The anti-reform protests are the “second war of independence,” lawmaker Naama Lazimi, of the Labor party, said Saturday in a speech in Haifa. In addition, a Channel 12 poll showed on Friday that the 67% of Israelis fear a civil war.

Last Tuesday, tens of thousands of Israelis protested in several cities of the country, and even blocked access to the Tel Aviv international airport, in a ‘Day of Resistance’ that resulted in 120 arrested and more than 13 injured in clashes with the security forces, who deployed the mounted police and water cannons to disperse the demonstrations.

This protest was called after Parliament – where the government coalition has a majority – approved in first reading one of the pillars of the reform, which consists of a bill that would put an end to the doctrine of reasonableness, which allows the Supreme Court to review and revoke government decisions that it considers unreasonable.

During the protests this Saturday in the city of Hod Hasharon, the former prime minister and opposition leader, Yair Lapid, warned that “if the reasonableness clause is annulledall fences will be broken and All limits will be crossed“. “We need the reasonableness clause because we have an unreasonable government. The Supreme Court is our last line of defense,” he said.

This Sunday Parliament is expected to continue the process to approve the law that would put an end to the doctrine of reasonableness, so that it can be definitively voted on before the end of this month. Some 170 reservists from the elite Sayeret Matkal unit of Israel’s army special forces announced they will suspend their service from next week, in protest of the reform. In addition, several reserve pilots – some high-ranking – have announced they will stop reporting for training starting next week, as will 106 other Air Force reservists assigned to non-combat roles.

Last Sunday, thousands of Israelis, most of them Army reservists, demonstrated in front of the house of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, asking him to publicly ask for the suspension of the reform, as he did in March in the face of massive protests and the strike of reservists

Gallant’s public speech angered Netanyahu, who fired him the next day, sparking the most massive protests since the reform was announced – more than 700,000 people took to the streets throughout the country – and a general strike was called. This forced the prime minister to announce that he was freezing the reform to seek a consensus with the opposition, in addition to annulling Gallant’s dismissal. However, negotiations with the opposition broke down in June due to a lack of agreement, and Netanyahu announced that he would go ahead with the reform unilaterally, reinvigorating the protest movement.