The Israeli government is awaiting a response from the attorney general to its inquiry on the state’s enforcement policy as anti-judicial reform protesters gear up for major disruptions on Tuesday.
At the start of Sunday’s Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his coalition would like answers from Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara about the enforcement policy regarding “threats and assaults on elected officials, calls to civil revolt and disobeying the law, blocking roads and illegal strikes.”
Netanyahu then cited examples from the past months of mass demonstrations that have included blocking roads such as the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv, disrupting access to Ben-Gurion Airport, harassing government ministers and threatening to refuse military service.
Lawyer Aviad Wisoli filed the complaint with Competition Commissioner Michal Cohen, the head of the Israel Competition Authority. It also calls for a criminal investigation to be opened against the company.
The complaint alleges that the closures could “seriously harm the public,” by, for example denying medical care to someone who has an appointment or by not providing essential foods that must be fresh.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for a boycott of Big and demanded an apology, insisting that the Knesset vote would take place “despite all those acting thuggishly.”
Also on Sunday, opposition leader Yair Lapid urged the Histadrut labor federation to declare another general strike.
The Histadrut’s general strike on March 27 against the government’s judicial reform initiative set off a cascade of similar strike calls, from the Israel Medical Association to fast-food chains. Takeoffs at Ben-Gurion were grounded when the Israel Airports Authority joined the strike.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in early April ordered his ministry to assess the damages resulting from the Histadrut’s general strike and to investigate the possibility of initiating legal proceedings against the labor federation.
Meanwhile, demonstrators continue to harass government officials. Army reservists organized an overnight rally starting Saturday evening outside of the home of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Amikam, a moshav located south of Haifa.
On Saturday, a group of more than 420 reservists from the elite Shayetet 13 Israel Navy commando unit sent an open letter to Gallant threatening to not show up for duty if the judicial reform legislation advances.
Ben-Gvir pressed the police about enforcement at the Tel Aviv protests, with Dep. Supt. Yoav Telem saying that six indictments were filed out of 572 arrests for assaulting police officers and that no investigations were opened on suspicion of criminal conspiracy to organize a riot.
“For shame. There is no enforcement,” Ben-Gvir said.
Produced in association with Jewish News Syndicate
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