Protesters face off with police at Ben Gurion airport
Thousands of anti-government protesters have converged on Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, some scuffling with police who sought to keep them from blocking access to the terminal for most flights in and out of the country.
Israeli police officers detain a demonstrator during a protest against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to overhaul the judicial system, at the Ben Gurion Airport in Lod, near Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, July 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Protesting against a plan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to overhaul the judiciary, dozens in the crowd entered the arrivals hall dancing and with megaphones chanted, “Democracy”.
Police officers eventually escorted them out.
Outside, the sidewalk overflowed with protesters carrying flags, blowing horns and banging drums.
A cordon of police lined the road as vehicles slowly drove past.
Horse-mounted police were called in to stand guard.
At one point, they parted the mass of people so an airport bus could complete its route.
Earlier on Monday, demonstrators briefly shut off access to a major Israeli seaport.
The legislative push, unveiled after Netanyahu regained power in late December atop a reli gious-nationalist coalition, has set off unprecedented protests, stirred concerns for Israel’s democratic health and dented the economy.
Police have pledged to keep Ben Gurion operating, and an airports authority spokesman said there had been no unusual flight delays.
Thirty-seven protesters were arrested.
One notice circulated online called on demonstrators to arrive at Ben Gurion with suitcases and passports, suggesting a ruse for bypassing hundreds of police deployed as reinforcements.
Netanyahu doused some of the furore in March by pausing the legislation and holding compromise talks with the opposition.
Those negotiations proved fruitless, and he is now pursuing what he deems a scaled-back version of the overhaul.
The opposition says the changes remain dangerous.
Netanyahu has defended the reforms as restoring the balance between the various branches of government and redressing what he and his coalition allies vjew as judic ial overreach.
Critics fear a bid by Netanyahu to curb court independence even as he argues his innocence in a long-running corruption trial.
The Ben Gurion handles 90,000 passengers a day in July, an airport spokesperson said.
Minister for Police Itamar Ben-Gvir had said that any attempt to paralyse it would constitute “harm to national security”.
Protesters had previously flocked to Ben Gurion in March, attempting to disrupt a visit by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and preventing Netanyahu from taking off for talks in Italy.
Austin ended up cutting his visit short while Netanyahu flew to Rome after reaching Ben Gurion by helicopter.
AAP
My wife and I experienced the blockade on Monday night as we were returning to Australia from Ben Gurion airport. The “protestors” attempted to block all access. Our trip to the airport from Jerusalem took an extra hour and a half. As our flight was leaving late we were (at the end), only moderately inconvenienced. The blockade involved some hundreds of cars, bedecked with Israeli flags and one or two occupants, who were having a “jolly” time, blowing the car horns. This was the first time that we were able to see, close up, the actual protestors. It became obvious that their overall, composition was of middle class, un-kippahed, “white”, Ashkenazim, whose link was NOT, potentially unfair (to them) changed laws, but feelings of distrust through to hatred, for religious and/or “dark” – kind word, Israelis. It was about their perceived loss of privilege and control of the many bureaucratic aspects of Israeli society. For example, we know of a case of a gifted girl, not being able to study medicine, because she is Sephardi from Shomron – that is, she is religious and one of the dark, others, and worse, a “settler”, while, as a display of their “fairness”, many Arabs are admitted on far less qualifications. So more than 50% of Jewish Israelis who are looking for fairness in treatment by courts and institutions, are treated as dangerous and uncivilised. The protestors, who are nearly all, only cogs in the system – “dupes”, and their powerful manipulators, must realise that the time for evening up has arrived, and accept their joint, as opposed to superior, positions in Israeli society – and move on. NB. My family in Israel, through my Ashkenazi daughter, her Sephardi husband and further marriage of daughters to Sephardi and Mizrachi men, is totally mixed – an example becoming ubiquitous – particularly, in Jerusalem, deserves. equal treatment by Law and Bureaucracy.