Tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated outside parliament and workers launched a nationwide strike, as a surging mass protest movement threatened to paralyze the economy.
JERUSALEM — Tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated outside parliament and workers launched a nationwide strike on Monday, as a surging mass protest movement threatened to paralyze the economy in its efforts to halt Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to overhaul the judiciary.
"This is the last chance to stop this move into a dictatorship," said Matityahu Sperber, 68, who joined a stream of people headed to the protest outside the Knesset. "I'm here for the fight to the end." The turmoil has magnified longstanding and intractable differences over Israel's character that have riven it since its establishment. The protesters say they are fighting for the very soul of the nation, saying the overhaul will remove Israel's system of checks and balances and directly challenge its democratic ideals.
On Monday afternoon, Netanyahu issued his first statement since he fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, urging against violence ahead of a planned counterprotest in Jerusalem organized by ultranationalist supporters of the judicial overhaul. "Where are we leading our beloved Israel? To the abyss," Arnon Bar-David, the group's head, said in a rousing speech to applause. "Today we are stopping everyone's descent toward the abyss."
The developments were being watched by the Biden administration, which is closely allied with Israel yet has been uneasy with Netanyahu and the far-right elements of his government. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the United States was "deeply concerned" by the developments.
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