Protesters Throng Israeli Airport After Government Moves to Rein In Judiciary

Tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated across the country on Tuesday, blocking the road outside the country’s main airport and about a dozen other thoroughfares and clashing with police officers to protest an overnight vote in Parliament that advanced efforts by the far-right ruling coalition to limit judicial oversight of the government.

Thousands of protesters poured into the street outside of Ben-Gurion International Airport, while others rallied across central Israel and outside of Jerusalem, in at least 20 towns and cities. They erected tents on one major intersection north of Tel Aviv. Police officers fired water cannon at some protesters and arrested at least 71 people in attempts to break up the demonstrations.

The intensity of the protests did not rise to the levels of unrest seen in March, when leading trade unions shut down large parts of the Israeli economy to protest the government’s earlier efforts to curb judicial power. After a three-month hiatus in which the government and the opposition sought but failed to reach a compromise, Israeli leaders are proceeding once again with parts of the plan, provoking widespread anger.

The renewed demonstrations reflected how the debate over the judicial overhaul is far from over: The protests also illustrated the political bind facing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who risks setting off social unrest by proceeding with the overhaul, or the collapse of his hard-line coalition if he halts it.

The dispute is part of a wider social rift between the government and its supporters, who want to create a more religious and nationalist state, and their opponents, who hold a more secular and pluralist vision. The split is also rooted in a profound disagreement about the form and future of Israeli democracy.

The government says that the overhaul is intended to improve the democratic system by giving elected lawmakers more power than unelected judges.

The plan is “not the end of democracy but rather the strengthening of democracy,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a video message on Monday, shortly before the vote.

But critics fear that the plan will undermine democracy by removing judicial oversight, risking government overreach.

“We stand here for the democracy of Israel,” said Tali Haran-Binun, 48, a social worker protesting near the Supreme Court in Jerusalem. “We will not let those people take away our democracy.”

Protesters also say that restrictions on judicial power might make it easier for the current administration to end the prosecution of Mr. Netanyahu, who is being tried on corruption charges — he denies wrongdoing. He has also rejected any suggestion that he hopes to use his office to disrupt the trial.

The protests on Tuesday were set off by an overnight vote in which lawmakers — by a majority of 64 to 56 — gave provisional support to a bill that would reduce the ways in which the Supreme Court can overrule elected officials.

If the bill passes two further votes in the coming weeks, it will stop the court from using the legal standard of “reasonableness” to countermand the government.

Reasonableness is a legal standard used by courts across the world, including in countries such as Australia, Britain and Canada. A decision is deemed unreasonable if a court rules that it was made without considering all relevant issues or without giving relevant weight to each issue or that it applied too much weight to irrelevant factors.

Some Supreme Court justices angered the government this year by using the standard to stop Aryeh Deri, a leading ultra-Orthodox politician, from becoming a cabinet minister. The justices said that it was unreasonable to appoint Mr. Deri because he had recently been convicted of tax fraud.

Though there are other ways for the court to restrict government decisions, opponents of the bill say that it would remove one of the main means by which judges can defend the country from corruption and autocracy.

“Last night, we saw the first step of this country becoming a dictatorship,” said Grace Sherman, 45, a surfing instructor who was protesting in central Tel Aviv.

Growing numbers of military reservists, who play important roles in the army and air force, have said they will refuse to volunteer for duty if the overhaul proceeds. But unlike in March, few have acted on that threat, according to the military. The country’s leading trade union has also said it will not consider initiating a new national strike unless the government’s plan gains more momentum.

A major network of shopping malls, BIG Shopping Centers, scaled back operations at several sites to protest the government’s plan, while allowing individual tenant shopkeepers the choice of whether to remain open.

Crowds of doctors also gathered outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, while women’s rights activists — dressed as characters from “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a novel by Margaret Atwood about a patriarchal, totalitarian state — marched elsewhere in the city.

Some protesters on Tuesday carried placards that asked the United States, which provides Israel with more than $3 billion in military aid each year, to use its influence to help stop the bill.

While President Biden has been critical of the overhaul and described the current Israeli government as the most extreme he has encountered in his political career, Israeli opposition members say that the U.S. government should take an even stronger stance.

Pressure from Mr. Biden earlier this year helped encourage Mr. Netanyahu to walk back parts of the overhaul. But Mr. Netanyahu also faced pressure from his coalition partners to push ahead with the plan. Some of them threatened to leave the coalition if he scrapped the process entirely, leading him to resume part of the plan this week.

Myra Noveck and Hiba Yazbek contributed reporting from Jerusalem, and Gabby Sobelman from Tel Aviv.