Hundreds of thousands of Israelis stopped working on Monday to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s unprecedented plans to reform the country’s judicial system, paralyzing the country.
This followed scenes of widespread unrest on Sunday night, after Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who became the first member of his Likud Party to speak out against the reforms. Gallant had warned that divisions over the plans threatened Israel’s security.
Netanyahu was due to deliver a speech to the nation Monday morning, Israeli media reported, but TV stations later said those plans had been suspended. It was not clear when or even if he would speak on Monday.
The plans proposed by Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition in January would threaten the independence of the Supreme Court and limit judges’ powers, according to critics, and have faced stiff opposition with Israelis regularly taking to the streets to demonstrate.
Peter Lerner, head of international relations at Histadrut, the Israeli trade union umbrella group representing some 700,000 workers, tweeted a video of cheering activists. He said the group’s chairman, Arnon Bar David, had just told the meeting: “We are stopping the legal revolution.”
“This is the time that together we bring Israel back to sanity and to the right path. This is the time that we together say ‘enough’ and it doesn’t matter if we are right or left,” Histadrut said in a statement.
Israel’s Airport Authority confirmed just before 11 a.m. local time (4 a.m. ET) that all departing flights from Ben-Gurion Airport would be grounded.
Big brands are taking part in the protest: McDonald’s said it would begin closing its restaurants across the country from midday (5 a.m. ET) before a full national closure from 2 p.m. (7 a.m. ET).
Israel’s leading universities will also be closed Monday in protest at the reforms and at Gallant’s firing.
“We, the presidents and rectors of the research universities in Israel, express deep…
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