Netanyahu denounces ‘anarchists’ after protest outside wife’s hair salon

2 March 2023, 10:24

Israel Politics. Picture: PA

Demonstrators outside the salon chanted ‘shame, shame’ at the end of a day of demonstrations against the government’s plan to overhaul the judiciary.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies have denounced protesters as “anarchists” after they massed outside a Tel Aviv salon where his wife was getting her hair done at the end of a day of demonstrations against the government’s plan to overhaul the judiciary.

Sara Netanyahu has long been a polarising figure in Israel, and the incident late on Wednesday in a posh neighbourhood in Tel Aviv reflected Israel’s emotionally charged divide over the overhaul, seen by opponents as an existential threat to the country.

Demonstrators outside the salon chanted “shame, shame” but did not try to force their way inside. Hundreds of police were sent to the scene and eventually escorted her into a limousine.

Meanwhile, Mr Netanyahu and his political partners showed no signs of easing up on a push to pass a series of bills to overhaul Israel’s judiciary. These moves have further inflamed an already deeply riven country and drawn the largest protests in over a decade.

Israelis wave national flags during a protest against plans by Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government to overhaul the judicial system (Ohad Zwigenberg/AP)

Protest organisers planned more demonstrations on Thursday, a day after their self-proclaimed “day of disruption” turned violent when police used a heavy hand against participants at a Tel Aviv rally.

Thursday’s demonstrations in Jerusalem are expected to include speeches by former government ministers and senior security officials.

Former top economists, including two former Bank of Israel heads and a Nobel Prize laureate, were set to speak at a conference in Tel Aviv about the economic fallout from the overhaul.

Justice minister Yariv Levin, one of the architects of the judicial overhaul, said on Wednesday night that despite the mounting public outcry, Mr Netanyahu’s government “will not stop the legislation”.

The proposed bills would give politicians and parliament control over judicial appointments, the power to overrule the Supreme Court and the ability to pass laws impervious to judicial review.

Critics of the plan include a growing number of former senior military figures, academics, economists and business leaders.

They say the changes will erode the country’s delicate system of checks and balances and erode democratic institutions.

Mr Netanyahu and his ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox allies say the changes are necessary to rein in the power of unelected judges.

Police handcuff an Israeli woman detained at a protest in Jerusalem (Maya Alleruzzo/AP)

The battle over the judiciary overhaul comes as Netanyahu’s trial on charges of accepting bribes, fraud and breach of trust drags on.

Israel’s leader has dismissed the charges against him as part of a “witch hunt” by biased law enforcement, judiciary and press.

On Wednesday, tens of thousands of Israelis took part in demonstrations across the country against what they saw as an attempt by Mr Netanyahu’s new government to weaken the Supreme Court and concentrate power in the hands of the ruling coalition.

Protesters blocked highways and major intersections in Tel Aviv and massed outside the prime minister’s official residence in Jerusalem.

For the first time since protests began two months ago, the scene on the streets turned violent after public security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a hardline nationalist settler, ordered police to take tougher action against demonstrators he claimed were “anarchists”.

At least 11 people were treated in hospital and police arrested dozens.

Wednesday’s events reached a crescendo outside a north Tel Aviv salon where the prime minister’s wife was getting her hair done.

Moshe Butbul, a hair stylist from the salon, told the Israeli news site Ynet that another client posted a selfie with Mrs Netanyahu. He claimed that “within minutes thousands arrived”, though the actual number of protesters may have been smaller, judging by videos posted online.

Reporters at the scene said the crowd kept its distance and did not attempt to break into the salon.

Mr Ben-Gvir then dispatched large numbers of security forces to the salon, saying on Twitter that he had ordered police to “save her life” from the demonstrators “besieging” the salon.

Hundreds of police officers, including mounted police, broke a path through the demonstration to let a car approach. Protected by a phalanx of police, Sara Netanyahu was escorted out of the salon and into the vehicle, which drove off under heavy police escort.

“The anarchy has to stop,” Mr Netanyahu said in a Facebook post accompanied by a picture of him embracing his wife. “This can lead to the loss of life.”

By Press Association

What’s driving the players behind Israel’s legal overhaul?

By Tia Goldenberg

The Associated Press
Thu., March 2, 2023

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — In Israel’s divisive debate over the government’s planned legal overhaul, proponents claim that curtailing the power of judges and courts is good for the country.

But, as their opponents often counter, other factors may be in play: Some of the leading politicians clamoring for these changes either face legal problems or believe the courts are obstructing their ideological agendas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s allies say the overhaul will rein in an unelected judiciary. Critics warn that it will upend Israel’s system of checks and balances, give too much power to the premier and push the country toward authoritarianism.


Here is a look at the key players who are pushing ahead with the overhaul, despite mass protests and opposition from business leaders, security chiefs and legal officials, as well as concern from Israel’s international allies.

NETANYAHU ON TRIAL

Netanyahu is on trial for corruption, charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in a series of scandals involving media moguls and wealthy associates.

While he was once seen as a defender of the courts, since being indicted, he has blasted the system for carrying out what he says is a witch hunt against him.


His detractors say Netanyahu is seeking an escape route from his trial. One part of the overhaul would give the government control over the appointment of judges. If that passes, Netanyahu, through his government, could install sympathetic judges who could decide his fate. Netanyahu denies the overhaul is linked to his trial.

Israel’s attorney general has barred Netanyahu from dealing with the overhaul, citing potential conflict of interest. But that isn’t expected to slow progress on it.

Netanyahu’s justice minister, Yariv Levin, is barreling forward. Levin has even said the charges against Netanyahu helped spark the need for the overhaul.

REPEAT OFFENDER

A Netanyahu ally in his coalition government is also burdened by criminal charges. Aryeh Deri was convicted and put on probation last year in a plea bargain for tax offenses. He also sat in prison for 22 months in the early 2000s for bribery, fraud and breach of trust for crimes committed while he was interior minister in the 1990s.

Deri was at the fulcrum of the country’s battle over the power of the courts earlier this year when Netanyahu was forced to fire him after the Supreme Court determined that it wasn’t reasonable for the repeat offender to serve as a Cabinet minister.

After the setback, the coalition doubled down on legislating Deri back into the government. In the meantime, he remains a force in parliament.

“Deri is driven by his own interests and vendetta,” said Yohanan Plesner of the Israel Democracy Institute think tank. “There is no way he can serve in the government unless the court’s authorities are dramatically cut down or reduced.”

A Deri spokesman denied the allegation, saying the politician believes the overhaul is necessary to restore a balance between the executive and judicial branches.

ULTRA-ORTHODOX INTERESTS

Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jews, who have a strong voice in the current government, have long felt that the courts threaten their way of life.

Their chief political objective is to continue exemptions for religious men from military conscription. Under a decades-old system, ultra-Orthodox men have been allowed to skip the country’s compulsory military service to instead study Jewish religious texts. That has prompted resentment from secular Israelis who have challenged the system at the Supreme Court, which has demanded the government set up a more equitable framework.

Successive governments have tried to meet the standards of the top court, which has struck down laws seen as favoring the ultra-Orthodox and has emerged as a threat to the community.

The ultra-Orthodox consider religious study — and avoiding military service — key to protecting their insular communities. Experts see military service as a way to integrate the ultra-Orthodox into the workforce. Many men in the community, which makes up 13% of the country’s population, do not work, putting a burden on the economy.

Secular Israelis and groups that promote Jewish pluralism have voiced concern that once judicial oversight is scaled back, the ultra-Orthodox will use their political clout to make the country’s character more religious. They point to attempts by ultra-Orthodox lawmakers to limit business and public works on the Jewish Sabbath as examples of what could lie ahead.

SLIGHTED BY THE DISENGAGEMENT

Pro-settler parties are an essential part of Netanyahu’s government. Simcha Rothman, a West Bank settler, is spearheading the overhaul as head of a parliamentary committee.

The courts have both sided with settlers and opposed them in past rulings, including about unauthorized outposts built on private Palestinian land. Many settlers nonetheless see the justice system as hostile to their desire to expand settlements and ultimately annex the West Bank.

Much of the settlers’ anger toward the court goes back to Israel’s withdrawal of troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005, when the justices sided with the government. At the time, settlers and their supporters demonstrated in large numbers against the withdrawal, which they felt was unfairly imposed on them. The withdrawal frequently comes up in the current heated debate, with settler leaders claiming that large segments of Israeli society that support the current protests did not back them during what they say was a deeply troubling time.

“Where were you during the disengagement,” firebrand settler leader and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reportedly asked bank chiefs earlier this year when they warned about the overhaul’s adverse effects on the economy.

Commentator Raviv Drucker said this signals the settlers’ real motivations. “The text was clear: The media and the judiciary rode roughshod over opponents of Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip,“ he wrote in the Haaretz daily. ”And here’s the subtext: Now, we’re taking revenge on you.”

Smotrich’s hard-line views came up against the Israeli establishment during the disengagement. He was arrested in the lead-up to the event for reported involvement in a plot to damage infrastructure and block main highways.

Smotrich’s governing partner, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has a long list of grievances. He believes the courts have been unfair to religious Jews and settlers and sided too often with Palestinians.

For years, Ben-Gvir, a far-right settler leader, was limited to the fringes of Israeli politics. He has been arrested dozens of times and was convicted of incitement and supporting a Jewish terror group.

In Netanyahu’s new government, he is the national security minister and now oversees the country’s police force.

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Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem contributed to this report.