Israel lives in the worst wave of protests -seven months now- in decades, the most serious crisis which Prime Minister Netanyahu has faced since he was in power (he touched it for the first time in 1996, he is in his sixth term), due to his controversial judicial reform of extreme rightwhich this Monday approved its first part.

At least 18 people were arrested in the last few hours and there were as many injured, most of them police officers. Roadblocks have multiplied throughout the country. In one of them, near Kfar Saba, a driver rammed his vehicle into the protesters.

What is wrong with this reform?

The government tries to limitseverely, the power of the judgeswhich are practically the only mechanism of counterweight that prevents executives with unlimited power in the Israeli system, in the absence of a constitution and with only one parliamentary chamber.

This reform “erodes the only democratic counterweight in Israel’s system, the only one that can limit the Government and Parliament if it considers that they exceed themselves,” David Gómez, an analyst for ‘The World Order’, explains to la Sexta Noticias. “Netanyahu and his far-right, nationalist coalition intend to have free way to act and be able to execute, for example, attacks on minorities“, Add.

The approved law, for now, destroys the “doctrine of reasonableness“, which allows the Supreme Court to overturn government decisions that it determines are unreasonable. That is, ensures the independencehe control and the surveillance between the judiciary and the executive. The modification was approved with 64 votes in favor and none against, after the 56 deputies of the opposition will abandon the Knesset (the national assembly, the parliament) amid cries of “shame!”.

“Israel would go from liberal democracy to dark dictatorship”

Even if it doesn’t change much in the short term, vast sectors of Israeli society – from the middle class to the military and even banks – see it as a abuse of power by Netanyahu, who, remember, is on trial on charges of corruption. As Haizam Amirah Fernández, from the Elcano Royal Institute, pointed out to laSexta, “the prime minister has many pending problems with the Justice and is willing to do anything to stay in the Government”. With the changes that he intends, the door is opened, say activists and experts, to all kinds of excesses and corruption what would remain unpunished. “It is only the first step, they are trying to move Israel from a liberal democracy to a dark dictatorship“, says emphatically one of the leaders of the demonstrations.

How does the Israeli government defend itself?

Ensuring that it only searches strengthen democracy, rebalancing power by giving more to Parliament. And arguing that the High Court is an elitist institution, not elected, politicized, leaning to the leftand that hinders him “with the excuse” of the rights of the minorities. “Israel has to be a strong democracy,” said the prime minister last night, who now promises to seek consensus for the rest of the reforms to come, once his ambitious -totalitarian, some say- initial plans have been “nuanced” (those he presented in March and had to put on hold due to the street pressure).

What are the next steps?

The most immediate, between now and November, Netanyahu has set a deadline for the government to gain weight when it comes to appointing judges. In that he is not willing to give up. “The government seeks check the appointment of the judges and limit their ability to rule on fundamental laws”, says Gómez. The Kaplan movement, the main organization behind the call for the protests against the judicial reform, has warned that they will continue to mobilize “until the end”.

The pressure against the Israeli prime minister, who left the hospital on Monday morning after undergoing an operation to put a pacemaker in his heart, is growing. In addition to civil society, banks and private companies have also joined the protests against the judicial reform. The two largest banks in the country, Leumi and Hapoalim, have allowed their workers to demonstrate without losing their wages. The crisis has even reached the point of Army, one of the most united institutions in the State of Israel. The most visible faces of the protests have threatened that more than 10,000 reservists would not serve again due to the approval of the “reasonableness law”, something that could do jeopardize Israeli military missions, such as the usual raids on the West Bank or diminishing its military potential against regional enemies such as Iran.

so the crashesanalysts agree, they can go to worst. Because these movements of the Israeli Government, more than a reform, point to a regime change.