Anti-government protest organizers say demonstrations to ‘intensify’ after PM speech

Anti-government protest organizers say demonstrations across Israel against the coalition’s push to dramatically revamp the judiciary will be held on Saturday for the 12th consecutive weekend and that the protests will “intensify.”

“Today we saw a bizarre show of a dictator-in-the-making who, instead of stopping and shelving the legislation, rushes to appoint the judges and engage in a hostile takeover of the Supreme Court,” the organizers say in a statement in response to Netanyahu’s speech this evening, in which he promised to move forward with a key bill to control judicial appointments that is set to come for second and third (final) readings in the Knesset plenum next week.

“He continues to incite against the court and releases spin everywhere. The way to prevent a rift in the nation is to abolish all the laws of the dictatorship. Any calls for negotiations while the legislation advances are illegitimate. We must oppose the dictatorship,” they write.