Street rallies in occupied territories lay bare Israel’s identity crisis: Tehran
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman says the ongoing street protests in Tel Aviv and other occupied territories have laid bare the identity crisis of the Israeli regime.
“The hidden identity crisis in the spider’s den (the Israeli regime) has come to light,” Nasser Kan’ani tweeted on Wednesday.
“Rallies across streets in Tel Aviv and elsewhere across occupied lands have been going on unremittingly for 10 weeks,” he wrote. “Of course, this is only one of the full-blown crises in Israel. A rootless foundation will be gone with a gust of wind.”
Kan’ani also cited an Arabic verse from the Holy Qur’an, which says, “Truly the flimsiest of houses is the house of the spider.”
On Saturday night, hundreds of thousands of people rallied across Israeli cities for the 10th consecutive week, protesting against a contentious plan to change the regime’s judicial system.
According to Israeli media, some 200,000 demonstrators rallied in Tel Aviv, while 50,000 people protested in the northern city of Haifa and 10,000 in Beersheba — the biggest yet in both.
The controversial “legal reforms” serve as the centerpiece of the policies of the Netanyahu-led cabinet, which he cobbled together late last year by wooing ultra-Orthodox and hard-right parties.
They seek to enfeeble the regime’s Supreme Court by robbing it of the power to strike down either the cabinet or the legislature’s decisions.
Another element of the reforms would give the 120-member parliament the power to overrule the court’s decisions with a simple majority of 61 votes.
The reforms would also empower the Knesset to amend the so-called Basic Laws – the regime’s quasi-constitution – in any way it sees fit.
Observers say the reforms can potentially enable the Knesset to annul a set of corruption charges that Netanyahu is being tried on. The Israeli prime minister is being sued for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.
Late on Monday night, the Israeli parliament advanced a bill that would allow it to overrule Supreme Court rulings.
The Knesset also advanced a bill that would make it harder to remove Netanyahu over the corruption charges that still hang over him.
The bill would allow the Israeli parliament to declare a prime minister unfit to rule only for physical or mental reasons and would replace current law that opens the door for a leader to be removed under other circumstances.
