Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departed for his long-awaited US trip early Monday, as the Rosh Hashanah holiday came to an end, telling reporters before boarding that he planned to stress in his upcoming meetings with world leaders and in his speech before the United Nations General Assembly that Iran “is breaking all of its commitments” vis-a-vis its nuclear program and “expanding its aggressiveness in the region.”
Netanyahu’s departure was met with a protest of several hundreds people at Ben Gurion International Airport, where some chanted for Netanyahu to “go and don’t come back.”
Mass protesters are also set to greet Netanyahu, whose hardline coalition is attempting to overhaul the judiciary and curb its oversight powers, over the course of his US trip this week with a first stop in San Jose, California and then New York.
Protesters have vowed to hound Netanyahu on his travels and during his scheduled meetings.
In remarks to reporters before his departure, Netanyahu lashed out at the anti-overhaul protesters who have kept the mass demonstrations going for nearly nine months, and accused them of “joining forces with the PLO and Iran” in their activities, which he framed as being against Israel (rather than against his hardline government).
“Whoever organizes the protests does it with a lot of money and financially-backed demonstrations. They have made it so that blocking roads is a normal thing, that refusal [to serve in the military and in the reserves] is a normal thing, and they are defaming Israel before the world. It seems normal to them. I was the head of the opposition and I did not slander Israel in the world,” said the prime minister of the mass protests against his government.
A photo distributed by protest organizers shows demonstrators marching on Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard while rallying in the coastal city on September 17, 2023. The Hebrew banner reads: ‘The dictatorship will collapse.’ (Ori Jaffe)
The anti-overhaul protests have drawn hundreds of thousands of people for 37 consecutive weeks, from all sectors in Israeli society including academics, legal professionals, military and security experts, reservists, members of the security establishment, members of the vaunted high-tech sector and many others.
On Sunday night, thousands of Israelis rallied nationwide against the judicial overhaul. The weekly protests are usually held on Saturdays but were pushed off to Sunday this week because of the holiday.
Demonstrators in Tel Aviv began the evening by staging what they called “The Victory of Democracy March” from Independence Hall on Rothschild Boulevard, where the establishment of Israel was declared, to the main protest site at Kaplan Street. Many demonstrators were clad in white for the Rosh Hashanah holiday, and some carried a large banner that declared: “The dictatorship will collapse.”
Others carried a large copy of the Declaration of Independence. “It’s a duty to stand up against those who scorn the Declaration of Independence and are turning Israel into a dictatorship,” the Kaplan Force group said in a statement.
Along with the main rally in Tel Aviv, smaller protests were held at dozens of locations around the country, including in Jerusalem, Haifa, Rehovot, Eilat, Karkur, Kiryat Tevon and elsewhere.
Anti-overhaul demonstrators protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as the premier heads to the US, at Ben Gurion Airport, September 17, 2023. One sign reads: ‘Don’t come back.'(Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Abroad, expat activists have also proved to be a persistent thorn in the side of government ministers and Knesset members during recent visits to New York and other cities in the US, using a network of sympathizers to pursue the lawmakers wherever they appear, ensuring that they find no safe haven abroad from the political discord at home.
Earlier this week, activists projected a giant message onto the UN Headquarters building in New York, saying: “Don’t believe Crime Minister Netanyahu. Protect Israeli democracy.” Activists said the message was projected onto the building for about 30 minutes.
“The slogan projected on the UN building wall is just a small taste of what is awaiting the indicted defendant Netanyahu on his visit to NYC,” the New York protesters say in a statement.
“We will be waiting to greet him. In the air, on land and at sea. The whole world will know that Netanyahu is a liar. We will not allow him to disgrace Israel and deceive world leaders with his speeches.”
In an image provided by activists on September 11, 2023, a message protesting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the UN is projected onto UN Headquarters in New York City. (Courtesy)
Netanyahu is set to meet with a host of world leaders during his six-day trip to the US, which will also feature a sit-down with billionaire Elon Musk who is facing accusations of amplifying antisemitism on his X social media platform, and is embroiled in a feud with the Anti-Defamation League.
The highest-profile sit-down will be the long-awaited visit with US President Joe Biden in a format that is sure to disappoint the prime minister, who has been angling for a visit to the White House since he returned to office as head of a right-wing, far-right and ultra-Orthodox coalition in late December. Instead, Biden has sufficed with a Netanyahu meeting on the sidelines of the General Assembly. The premier is set to address the gathering of world leaders on Friday morning local time.
The Biden administration has held off on an invitation to the White House amid the massive protests and fierce opposition to the Netanyahu government’s judicial overhaul bid, which Washington has repeatedly warned against.
Netanyahu will also meet South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky among others.
In Sunday’s protests, references to the Declaration of Independence featured heavily after a lawyer representing Netanyahu’s government at the High Court of Justice sparked an uproar this week when he dismissed Israel’s foundational document as a “hasty” document endorsed by unelected signatories, arguing that cannot be a source of legal authority.
Ilan Bombach did so during a high-stakes hearing on petitions against the first major piece of judicial overhaul legislation passed by the government — a law that prohibits courts from striking down cabinet and ministerial decisions based on their being “unreasonable.”
At the hearing, several justices enumerated the view that the Knesset’s authority to legislate derives from the 1948 Declaration of Independence, which defines Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. Arguing that the Knesset cannot legislate laws — even Basic Laws — that erode Israel’s Jewish or democratic character, the judges indicated that the court thus had the authority to police those guardrails.
But Bombach, who is representing the government in the High Court since Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has refused to do so in the case, replied that the signatories of the foundational document were unelected and that it was “unthinkable” to say the declaration must “bind all future generations.”
An unprecedented panel of all 15 justices presided over the highly charged session, and will issue their decision at a later date.
The law is the only component of the coalition’s broader judicial overhaul program that has been passed by the Knesset so far. Like other parts of the radical agenda, it has faced massive opposition from protest groups and opposition parties.