Pro-compromise crowd rallies for overhaul deal outside Herzog residence

Some 400 people are demonstrating outside the official residence of President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem, demanding that negotiators succeed in hashing out a compromise between the government and opposition on proposed changes to the judiciary.

The demonstrators hail from a group calling itself Kriat Haskama (“Call to Compromise”), which claims that a large majority of Israelis want to see a grand bargain between those who want to transfer many court powers to the government and those who demand the court’s ability to act as a check on government power be preserved.

Organizers say demonstrators include both those who are for the reforms and those against.

“Our goal is to send a clear message to decision-makers that we, proponents and opponents of the reform, are in favor of wide agreement,” one official from the group is quoted telling the Ynet news site.

בתום יום הזיכרון ויום העצמאות ועם החזרה לשגרה: לא קמים עד שמסכימים. לא גוררים את המדינה שוב לכאוס pic.twitter.com/X6UriJdakl

— התנועה המסורתית // The Masorti Movement (@MasortiMovement) April 26, 2023

Speaking at the rally is legendary ex-general and former minister Avigdor Kahalani, who was honored Tuesday night as a torch-lighter at the official state ceremony to begin Independence Day.

“We’ve gone insane. We’re fighting with ourselves and paying no attention to where we are headed. We’re in the midst of trauma,” he says, according to the Masorti Movement, which represents Conservative Judaism in Israel and also backed the demonstration. “I hope it doesn’t take a slap in our face from those sharpening their swords abroad to snap us out of it.”