At anti-overhaul rally, Lapid says ‘we won’t rest until Israel has a constitution’

Opposition leader Yair Lapid tells demonstrators gathered outside the Knesset that “no government gave us our rights and no government will take our rights.”

“There is one thing that the extremists in the government didn’t take into account: You,” he tells the tens of thousands of anti-overhaul protesters assembled in Jerusalem.

“We won’t shut up and we won’t rest until the State of Israel has a constitution,” the Yesh Atid leader adds, to crowd cheers of “Constitution! Constitution!”

“If they want us to live here together, they need to respect our values. What’s holy to us is not less important than what’s important to them,” Lapid says, likening democratic values to religious-led lifestyles and pro-settlement priorities.

Meanwhile, former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon tells The Times of Israel that “we’re nearing the end, but it’s not yet enough,” as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to announce a pause to the government’s highly divisive judicial overhaul push.

Pointing at the Knesset over his shoulder, Ya’alon says that the prime minister “has to bury [the legislation],” adding that “he hasn’t buried it yet.”