Protests are still going on for the fourth month in a row against the judicial reform project supported by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as thousands of Israelis demonstrated on the streets of Tel Aviv, hundreds came out in the city of Rehovot, raised Israeli flags and blocked a major intersection.

 Edited  by |ANNA Sam

Middle East  section -  CJ journalist

Tel Aviv - May,7,2023

     As thousands of Israelis gathered in Habima Square in Tel Aviv, preparing to demonstrate toward Kaplan Street, they carried Israeli flags and chanted anti-Netanyahu slogans

One of the demonstrators carried a large photo of the far-right Minister of national security Itamar Ben-Ghafir, on which he wrote "Minister of national failure."

On March 27, Netanyahu announced the "suspension" of the legislative process to give "a chance.. For dialogue " after the expansion of the protest movement and the beginning of a general strike

Inter-party negotiations under the auspices of President Isaac Herzog began last month in order to reach a settlement. But the opposition still doubts Netanyahu's intentions and no compromise has been reached

The organizers of the demonstration stressed in a statement that the Netanyahu government is waiting to turn Israel into a " dangerous and religiously extremist dictatorship."

They pointed to what they called the economic cost of the government's refusal to abandon these reforms

"As long as the deliberations continue in the president's house, no investments will enter Israel and the Israeli economy will collapse."

Israelis have been demonstrating weekly for four months against the judicial reform that Benjamin Netanyahu's government wants to implement and his critics consider anti-democratic

The coalition government, which includes right-wing and far-right parties and ultra-Orthodox Jewish formations, asserts that the reforms are aimed at correcting an imbalance between the judiciary and elected members of Parliament, while its opponents assert that they endanger Israeli democracy