Israel’s Netanyahu Pushes Ahead With Vote on Judicial Overhaul as Protests Intensify

TEL AVIV—Israel’s parliament on Sunday began final discussions to vote on the first part of a judicial overhaul that has sharply divided the country, as mass protests intensify and thousands of military reservists say they will refuse to report for duty. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, which controls 64 of 120 seats in Israel’s parliament, or Knesset, says it is determined to pass the bill as early as Monday, despite widespread calls to find a compromise from those at home and abroad, including President Biden, and warnings by Israel’s military that the domestic unrest could have significant national security implications. 

Netanyahu has accused the military reservists of acting in an antidemocratic way. Some members of his coalition have said it amounts to a “military coup.”

“In a proper democracy, the deciding hand isn’t that which holds a weapon, but the hand that places the ballot in the ballot box,” Netanyahu said in a speech Thursday night.

Netanyahu, who was hospitalized overnight so that he could be fitted for a pacemaker, said before entering surgery that efforts were being made to reach a compromise on the bill that could be supported by opposition lawmakers. He also said he would be healthy enough to attend the vote. 

The bill aims to restrict the Supreme Court’s ability to strike down government or executive decisions on the basis of reasonability, which critics say will open the way for government corruption by preventing the court from stopping the appointment of corrupt officials or allowing the government to fire people who oppose its policies. Supporters say the reasonableness standard is too nebulous and allows the courts to overrule the will of elected officials for political purposes. 

The bill is the first piece of legislation that is part of a judicial overhaul aimed at weakening the power of the judiciary and giving the ruling coalition more sway over the appointment of judges. 

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have protested for 29 straight weeks against the overhaul. In a country of 9.3 million, protest organizers said more than half a million people attended rallies against the legislation on Saturday night, including 220,000 in Tel Aviv and more than 100,000 in Jerusalem. On Sunday, tens of thousands of protesters arrived in Jerusalem, where the Knesset is based, after a dayslong march in the summer heat from Tel Aviv, sleeping in tent camps along the way. 

More than 1,000 members of the air force, including hundreds of fighter pilots, as well as hundreds of members of elite commando and intelligence units have said in letters sent to their commanders in recent days that they won’t report for duty if the current bill is passed. The air force is integral to Israel’s frequent military operations and reservist pilots must maintain a rigorous training regiment to be considered fit for duty.

Herzi Halevi, the Israeli military chief of staff, warned on Sunday in a letter to soldiers that the military’s unity was breaking because of disagreements on the overhaul. He warned of a situation in which infantry troops might think they can’t rely on pilots to support them.

The protesting reservists say what they are opposing isn’t a political decision, but attempts by what they view as an extremist government to undermine the country’s democracy and seize unrestricted power. 

On Saturday, dozens of former top security officials, including former heads of the military, foreign spy agency Mossad and domestic security agency the Shin Bet, penned a letter to Netanyahu, supporting the reservist protest and warning the prime minister that his policies are eroding the social cohesion required to maintain a “people’s army” model such as the one in Israel. 

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is making last-minute efforts to broker a compromise over the legislation, his office said Friday. Gallant’s public opposition to unilaterally passing the judicial legislation in March played a role in Netanyahu freezing the process and beginning negotiations with the opposition, which later fell apart.

“I support them 100%. I think they are very brave,” said Natalie Meiri, 32, of the protesting reservists. “It is above politics. It is above left or right,” added Meiri, who joined hundreds of thousands of Israelis demonstrating on Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Street on Saturday night.

Segev Baron, 29, who also attended the Tel Aviv protest and previously served in an elite Israeli combat unit, said he was feeling the calls to halt reserve duty in his former unit.  

“I believe it falls within the rights of each soldier to disobey—it is an extreme but righteous step, though I don’t think it will break the military,” he said.

—Ari Flanzraich contributed to this article.

Write to Dov Lieber at [email protected]