To protest a right-wing government plan to limit the powers of the judiciary, miles of anti-government demonstrators marched into Jerusalem on Saturday evening, turning the city’s main street into a sea of blue and white Israeli flags.
Hundreds of demonstrators had been marching since Tuesday night from the coastal city of Tel Aviv, about 40 miles away, in temperatures nearing 100 degrees Fahrenheit and camping for four nights along the way. Many more joined them in the following days and by Saturday the number of marchers had risen to at least 20,000 despite the scorching heat.
By the time the procession reached the outskirts of Jerusalem on Saturday, marchers had walked 10 miles, forcing cars into a single lane of traffic. The column stretched for at least two miles and included people in motorized wheelchairs and at least one person on crutches.
“Have you ever seen anything like this?” Ilana Holzman, 65, a protester from Tel Aviv, said she joined the march for the last leg on Saturday.
“I think this is the only place to be now,” Ms. Holzman said. “Not on the beach and not in air conditioning. Here you will see the people of Israel at their best. It’s terribly hot, but they’re moving forward.
The unusual spectacle reflects the intensity of emotions running through Israeli society this weekend, as the ruling coalition prepares to pass a law in the coming days that would limit the ways the Supreme Court can overturn government decisions.
The Histadrut, the country’s largest union, announced on Saturday night that it was holding an emergency meeting in response to the government’s plan, amid speculation it could call a general strike.
A tent city sprung up in a Jerusalem park below the parliament building as some of the protesters who marched into the city settled in for the stormy days of protests ahead.
Millions of other protesters simultaneously held rallies in several cities across the country for the 29th consecutive week. About 10,000 Israelis have announced they will stop showing up for reserve duty if the law is passed, along with more than 1,000 air force members who have made similar threats in recent days, a group representing military reservists from all branches of the military.
And a group of former senior Israeli security leaders released a joint letter calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to delay the law unless it is revised by consensus, citing protests by reservists and risks to Israel’s military capability.
The letter was signed by three former army chiefs; five former heads of Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service; three former directors of the Shin Bet, an internal security agency; and four former Commissioners of Police.
Adding to Sunday’s uncertainty, Mr. Netanyahu was taken to the hospital to have a pacemaker implanted in the process of putting him under sedation, his office said.
Negotiations for an 11th-hour compromise on the legal dispute are still ongoing and could result in the project being watered down or postponed. But for now, lawmakers in parliament, where the ruling coalition holds a four-seat majority, are expected to hold a mandatory vote on the law on Monday.
The law prevents the court from overruling the national government by using the legal standard of “reasonableness,” a concept judges have previously used to block ministerial appointments and oppose planning decisions, among other government actions.
The government and its supporters say the new legislation will improve democracy by restoring the balance of power between elected lawmakers and unelected judges, and give lawmakers more freedom to implement policies chosen by a majority of voters at the ballot box.
“The proper balance between authorities has been disturbed over the past decades,” Mr Netanyahu said in a speech on Thursday. “This balance must be restored so that the democratic choice of the people finds expression in a government elected by the people.”
Courts can still use other legal criteria to challenge government decisions.
But much of the country, including those at Saturday’s march, say the legislation undermines democracy because it removes a key check on government overreach. They say it could allow the government to build the least pluralistic society – the most ultranationalist and ultraconservative – in Israeli history.
“We’re marching because, to make a long story short, the government is trying to turn us into a dictatorship,” said Navot Silberstein, 31, shortly after reaching the top of the steep hills west of Jerusalem on Friday evening.
“We don’t live in a country where the government has too much power over us,” added Mr. Silberstein, his shirt drenched in sweat after hours of walking in the sun.
This disagreement is part of a much broader and long-running social dispute about the nature and future of Israeli society. The ruling coalition and its base generally have a more religious and conservative outlook and see the court as an obstacle to that goal. The opposition has a more secular and diverse outlook and views the court as a standard-bearer for its cause.
Some protesters fear the legislation will make it easier for the government to enforce ultra-Orthodox Jewish practice in public life, such as by requiring shops to close on the Sabbath or enforcing gender segregation in public spaces. Government leaders are either out of corruption or are currently on trial for bribery and fraud. Others fear the law will make it easier for Netanyahu to escape punishment, something he vehemently denies.
“The fear is that our country will not look like it does today,” Ms. Holzman said about the judicial overhaul plan.
Similar mass protests in March prompted the government to suspend, at least for now, other planned judicial changes. One of the suspended plans would have allowed Parliament to overturn court decisions; Another gives more power to the government to become Supreme Court justices.
