From the Liveblog of
Monday, February 20, 2023
Small counter-rally held in support of legal shakeup, decrying High Court overreach
Carrie Keller-Lynn is a former political and legal correspondent for The Times of Israel
About a dozen counter-demonstrators, ringed by police protection and heckled by the anti-judicial overhaul majority near the Knesset in Jerusalem, are advocating legal reforms to weaken and remake the Supreme Court.
“The High Court of Justice doesn’t help us, it tramples us,” says one of the protesters into a loudspeaker. “It destroys our homes.”
“The people are the sovereign, the time has come for you to stop trampling over our rights,” adds the religious supporter of settlement. “The high court is a dictator, it doesn’t represent our values.”
Alongside the group of religious protesters are secular supporters, holding signs saying: “The High Court of Justice is a dictator.”
“Since the judicial revolution [in the 1990s], when the High Court of Justice authorized itself to act according to a constitution it defined for itself, the High Court has made itself the unelected sovereign of the country,” says Aharon, 37, who came from Tel Aviv.
“I have been feeling for years already that this country has enabled criminals to enter the Knesset,” he says, citing Arab lawmakers who are “against the leadership of Israel.”
Aharon, who is secular and identifies with the political right, also cites the Oslo peace process, the Gaza Disengagement, and the prevention of deporting African asylum seekers as examples of the court’s overreach.
The Times of Israel Community.