100,000 Protest in Tel Aviv against Immunity Bills for Netanyahu
May 27, 2019, The Israeli Communist Party http://www. maki.org.il המפלגה הקומוניסטית הישראלית الحزب الشيوعي الاسرائيلي (Israel)
A
hundred thousand Israelis protested on Saturday night, May 25, proposed
legislation that would grant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immunity from
prosecution on a series of corruption charges. The protesters outside the Tel
Aviv Museum of Art on called for protecting Israel’s democratic sphere against
far-right government overreach.
The
demonstrators rallied against legislation being pushed by Netanyahu’s incoming
coalition to shield him from criminal prosecution as well as restricting the
power of the Supreme Court.
Speakers at the protest included
Kahol Lavan chairman MK Benny Gantz, Kahol Lavan co-chairman MK Yair Lapid,
Kahol Lavan MK Moshe Ya’alon, Hadash Chairman Ayman Odeh, Labor chairman MK Avi
Gabbay, Meretz’s chairwomen MK Tamar Zandberg, Kahol Lavan’s MK Ofer Shelah,
retired Arab-Druze general Amal Assad and attorney Sagit Peretz Deri.
MK Odeh told the gathered masses
that efforts to safeguard Israeli democracy amid brewing initiatives by the
incoming coalition to grant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immunity from
prosecution would only be possible when Jewish and Arab citizens work and
struggle together. Addressing the crowd, Odeh said, “I am here today because I
believe that Jewish-Arab partnership is the only way to achieve hope and
change.” “Arab citizens alone cannot enact change, but without us it is
impossible,” the Hadash MK continued. “I am here today because I believe that
without equality there is no democracy.”
Odeh was a last-minute addition to
the Saturday evening lineup of speakers after a phone call hours earlier with
Gantz, whose party was the primary organizer of the rally.
On Friday, Haaretz reported
that after Odeh accepted a formal invitation to address demonstrators last
week, he was told that “the list of speakers was already closed and there was
no room for additional ones.”
The organizers of the protest, which
bills itself as a pro-democracy rally, included all Jewish opposition parties –
Kahol Lavan, Labor and Meretz – but not Hadash and the Arab parties. The rally
was the first time since the April 9 election that Israel’s opposition parties
joined forces.
After significant criticism that no
Arab was included in the rally, Gantz called Odeh several hours before it was
to begin and asked him to address the demonstrators. “The struggle against
Netanyahu’s attempts to destroy the democratic space is a joint struggle that
all democratic forces share,” Odeh wrote in a post on his official Twitter
handle.
“We won’t have an alternative for a corrupt
and destructive regime without broad cooperation by all citizens, Jews and
Arabs. Only thus will we be able to replace the regime, only thus will we be
able to pose an alternative to his destructive policy.”
Meretz chairwoman Zandberg tweeted
that “there is no democracy without equality and the struggle for democracy
cannot be for Jews only.” She added “all opposition members will be on stage
tonight.” Labor’s MK Shelly Yacimovich tweeted that “a protest without Arabs is
surrender to racism and to the incitement from the right.”
Related
May 27, 2019 in Society and Democracy. Tags: Arabs in Israel, corruption, Hadash, opposition, undermining of democracy
