Chaos as protesters block roads, face riot police, water cannons as judicial law passes

Demonstrators raging against the government’s passage of the first part of its plan to remake the judiciary faced off against police for hours in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem Monday night, blocking freeways and promising to ratchet up demonstrations, as lawmakers vowed to push ahead with the rest of the contentious program.

Using mounted police and water cannons, authorities only managed to clear the major Tel Aviv thoroughfare after 1 a.m., though thousands continued to demonstrate at nearby Kaplan junction, where some 15,000 had massed hours earlier in reaction to the government coalition’s contentious “reasonableness” bill being approved on its final two votes.

Large contingents of riot police deployed in Tel Aviv, some of them helmeted, others in plain clothes. There were allegations of unprecedented police violence, with 20 protesters reported hospitalized at Ichilov Hospital with injuries including broken bones, and dozens more receiving medical attention at the scene.

In Jerusalem, police also used officers on horseback and powerful blasts of skunk water to drive off protesters who rallied first outside the Knesset and later blocked the Begin freeway and demonstrated near the Supreme Court building, an institution that government critics say will be left toothless by the judicial overhaul, rending Israel’s democracy defunct.

“We will continue to dig in on this fight, which will only intensify and in the end Israel will go back to being a democracy,” protest organizers said in a statement shortly after the bill passed. “Any Israeli going out into the street to protest is a hero.”

At least 33 people were arrested throughout the day and night in demonstrations in the two cities, police said. Among those arrested was Moshe Radman, a tech entrepreneur who has become a leader of the protest movement and who said he was beaten by police when they detained him.

Activists and Hebrew-language media reports accused the police of using excessive violence and brutal tactics largely unseen during 29 weeks of large protests against the overhaul.

זווית נוספת לאירוע דריסה: דוברות המשטרה (שרון): המשטרה מבצעת כעת חיפושים אחר רכב פרטי שפגע במפגינים בצומת מלל על כביש 531. 3 מפגינים נפצעו. pic.twitter.com/dxFnelCTO3

— daniel amram – דניאל עמרם (@danielamram3) July 24, 2023

There were also a number of incidents of violence allegedly aimed at protesters or by them, including a driver that plowed through a group blocking a road north of Tel Aviv, injuring three.

Protests intensified in the late afternoon after the bill passed in its final readings, with Opposition Leader Yair Lapid promising to petition the High Court the next day as the coalition celebrated its win, which came over a month after the collapse of talks aimed at finding a compromise on the overhaul.

“It’s a sad day,” Lapid said after the vote. “This is not a victory for the coalition. This is the destruction of Israeli democracy.”

“We may have lost a battle but we will win the war,” said Benny Gantz, head of the opposition National Unity party.

In a televised address, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected such criticism. “Today we did a necessary democratic act, an act that is intended to return a measure of balance between the branches of government,” he said.

He vowed to seek renewed dialogue with the political opposition and called for national unity. “Let us reach agreements,” he said. “I extend my hand in a call for peace and mutual respect between us.”

As he spoke, Israel’s Channel 13 TV showed a split screen with a police water cannon spraying crowds of protesters.

While the day’s chaos ended in Tel Aviv, it began in Jerusalem, where tens of thousands gathered outside the Knesset starting in the morning as the government prepared to pass the reasonableness bill.

From the early morning and throughout the day and night, protesters poured into the roads surrounding the parliament building, locking hands to prevent Border Police officers from dragging them away.

Police deployed water cannons to clear protesters from roads leading to the Knesset, sparking violent clashes that intensified as the parliamentary activity advanced, ending with at least five protesters and three police requiring medical treatment.

Inside the Knesset, lawmakers in Netanyahu’s ruling coalition described the protests as a “siege,” trying to paint themselves as the targets of a January 6-style insurrection.

“This is the Capitol,” tweeted Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right lawmaker who strongly supports the judicial overhaul. “The left has long since become undemocratic and the right is trying to return democracy to Israel.”

Following the vote, protesters took to the streets throughout the country, including in Jerusalem, where they blocked the Begin Highway, the capital’s only freeway, for some three hours and rallied outside the Supreme Court.

Police used foul-smelling skunk water, sprayed from water cannons, to clear out protesters. Some put plugs in their noses or held up sprigs of rosemary plucked from nearby bushes to try to control the stench.

“This puts us on the way to dictatorship,” said protester Danny Kimmel, a 55-year-old program manager. “You don’t do this to people who are protesting. It’s their right.”

עשרות מפגינים מתיישבים על הנתיבים בכביש בגין pic.twitter.com/fCa5eYjunm

— Bar Peleg (@bar_peleg) July 24, 2023

“This won’t be a dictatorship,” former Shin Bet head Nadav Argaman told Channel 12 news as he and other former defense brass led a march to the anti-government rally Monday evening.

In Tel Aviv, some 15,000 people initially gathered at Kaplan Street outside Israel Defense Forces headquarters, before protesters began streaming toward the Ayalon highway to block the major thoroughfare.

Activists on Kaplan and the Ayalon lit fires, waved flags and sang “we will not give up,” as police attempted to open the highway back up. The closures have become a regular occurrence as protests against the overhaul have ramped up in recent weeks after talks collapsed.

Police only managed to clear the roadway at around 1:30 a.m., with mounted officers, water cannons and members of the Yasam riot police unit deployed, though hundreds more continued to rally on Kaplan Street for another hour.

Activists also blocked roads in Haifa, Ra’anana and elsewhere.

Reports of police violence were rampant as protesters clashed with officers attempting to move them off roadways. Activists and members of the press accused police of indiscriminate use of water cannons and of using excessive force.

In one instance, police stood in front of other officers violently arresting an activist on the side of the road to block a news channel camera from filming.

תיעוד מטורף של אלימות שוטרים: לוקחים הצידה מפגין. תופסים ברגליים. כשהוא שרוע על הרצפה וחסר אונים מתחילים להכות באגרופים. וכדי להסתיר מהמצלמות – השוטרים נעמדים בחומה שתסתיר את האלימות. הכל בשידור חי. @Meir_Marciano pic.twitter.com/p3FCRddVfa

— נריה קראוס Neria Kraus (@NeriaKraus) July 24, 2023

Police said that demonstrators fought them and threw bottles filled with sand at officers, injuring at least 13 cops in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

In an apparent first, police were equipped with stun grenades and authorized to use them against the protesters, though none were actually deployed, Channel 12 news reported.

Use of the devices against the anti-government demonstrators would mark a significant escalation in tactics by police, which have faced mounting pressure from National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to step up efforts against protests who block roads.

There were also several bouts of violence between protesters and other civilians.

In Kfar Saba, three people were lightly injured when a van rammed through a group of protesters marching on Route 531, an area highway. In a video, the vehicle could be seen pushing its way through the group and hitting a number of people before speeding off.

Police arrested the driver for questioning.

In Jerusalem, an anti-overhaul protester was held on suspicion of using a flagpole to break the back window of a car as a woman drove with her kids near an intersection where protesters had gathered.

סרטון לא קל לצפייה. מפגינים נגד הרפורמה מנפצים שמשה לרכב. סתם. שלושה ילדים קטנים שצורחים מפחד ואישה צעירה שמתחננת שיתנו לה לעבור. האנשים האלה איבדו את הבלמים pic.twitter.com/PdyWB1YYHq

— kobi bornshtein | קובי בורנשטיין (@kobi_bornshtein) July 24, 2023

And in Kibbutz Hatzerim, seven people were detained when a fight broke out between pro-overhaul protesters and residents of the southern kibbutz. During the scuffle, the head of the town’s security squad fired his gun in the air.

Monday’s vote saw lawmakers approve a measure that prevents judges from striking down government decisions on the basis they are “unreasonable.”

The government’s critics say removing the standard of reasonability opens the door to corruption and improper appointments of unqualified cronies to important positions. The Supreme Court, for instance, this year struck down Netanyahu’s appointment of Shas head Aryeh Deri for interior and finance minister as unreasonable because of a past tax conviction.

Justice Minister Yariv Levin, the architect of the plan, said parliament had taken the “first step in an important historic process.”

“This is just the beginning,” added Ben Gvir.

Outside of Israel, passage of the bill drew expressions of dismay and worse from Diaspora groups as well as the White House.

“It is unfortunate that the vote today took place with the slimmest possible majority,” said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a statement. A later statement from the National Security Council urged that the right of protest be protected.

As activists bathed central Tel Aviv in blue and white flags, one activist’s red and blue North Korean emblem stood in stark contrast, a warning, he said, of where Israel is headed.

“We are not there yet,” said Dean, 29, from Tel Aviv. “What happened today is the start. Tomorrow, I will wake up and still go to work, but the government is sending lots of messages to delegitimize the protests and what we stand for.”

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