In rallies against the government, an anti-reform right-wing movement is taking shape

Supporters of Israeli judicial reform like to describe the battle over it as a partisan issue, promoted by the right-wing coalition headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposed by the center-left.

This reading has its merits for the reformists: It is useful in dismissing the protesters as sore losers seeking to impose their will in an extra-parliamentary fashion after the November elections, in which Netanyahu’s Likud party came out on top. And they can point to the many warnings by establishment figures against the perceived dangers of reform as evidence of the left’s hold on power — and the need to devolve more of it to politicians who are representative and accountable to a growing right-wing constituency.

Recently, however, a new protest movement by right-wingers against Reformation—both Orthodox and non-Orthodox—sought to change this surface.

It has many names: the moderate right. The sane right is the right concerned. Whatever you want to call it, it announces its existence,” Yoaz Hendel, a former cabinet minister who is the unofficial leader of this popular movement, told The Times of Israel on Sunday.

The right-wing protest against sweeping reform has occurred at three rallies over the past month, attended by about 12,000 people in all, according to Hendel, a self-described right-wing liberal who grew up in a religious family in the West Bank settlement. kana.

This is not a huge show compared to the tens of thousands of protesters who have been gathering for the past 10 weeks every Saturday night in Tel Aviv and beyond, Hendel acknowledges.

“An average crowd in Kfar Saba has gathered more people than us. But in right-wing circles, the conversation we have provided far exceeds the numerical impact. Our call for reconciliation is being heard.”

Hendel said that some right-wing opponents of the reform agreed with his aims. Others completely disagree. He added, “But everyone is worried about the potential for an insurmountable rift in the Jewish people, which is increasingly becoming a reality as this overarching reform tears at the very fabric of our society.” Hendel said the reform needs to stop and make way for a negotiated reform, perhaps along the lines of what President Isaac Herzog is expected to propose this week.

At the right’s latest rally against reform, held Saturday night in Jerusalem, hundreds of demonstrators in attendance heard a series of speeches from center-right speakers, including Rabbi Moshe Lichtenstein, president of the prestigious Har Etzion yeshiva in the West Bank. Elon Shvut settlement – one of the flags of religious Zionism.

In his speech, Lichtenstein said: “Develop a judicial system worthy of religious value.” The judiciary “must be reformed. There are a lot of reforms, and a lot needs to be done, but not in haste, not forcefully, and not by tearing our society apart without dialogue and attention,” he said.

Rabbi Moshe Lichtenstein, president of Har Etzion Yeshiva, speaks during a protest by right-wing demonstrators against the Israeli government’s planned judicial reform, in Jerusalem, March 11, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

He said that Liechtenstein did not agree with all the components of the comprehensive reform. “But even if it does, the price of making it happen is tearing our society apart. It’s not worth it,” Lichtenstein added.

Among its essential elements, a sweeping reform making its way forward in Knesset votes would give the coalition control over the appointment of judges, significantly limit the Supreme Court’s ability to overturn legislation, and enable a slim majority of lawmakers to override such rulings.

In an interview with The Times of Israel, the 61-year-old rabbi, who was born in New York and immigrated with his family to Israel when he was 10, said he is reluctant to delve into political controversy. “I have no choice because I am driven by a great fear for the safety of our community,” he said. “I speak because we are facing the abyss, the division and division that was our downfall before, and may be our downfall again.”

In his letter, Lichtenstein added that he had no confidence that Netanyahu would handle the issue. “For 20 years, he focused on security, diplomacy and economics, ignoring societal issues, divides and divisions,” Lichtenstein said.

Another speaker at the right-wing anti-reform protests was Malka Butyrkowski, an influential Talmud teacher who lives in the Tekoa settlement. Avi Issaskarov, co-creator of Fauda TV show. and Amitai Porat, former leader of the religious kibbutz movement and son of the late Hanan Porat, leader of the settlement movement.

Malka Butyrkowski speaks at the Begin Center in Jerusalem, October 18, 2012. (Oren Nahshon/Flash90)

But why do right-wingers need to organize separate rallies instead of just joining the public rallies that are taking place across the country?

One answer lies in calling for a compromise, said Uri Heitner, a resident of Kibbutz Ortal in the Golan Heights. In the 1990s he was among the leaders of protests against plans to return the area to Syria in return for a peace deal. Many protesters oppose the idea of ​​reforming the legal system. has not been. A lot needs to change, but through dialogue and not under Netanyahu, “who is on trial for alleged corruption,” Heitner said.

Hendel said that the scattering of Palestinian flags and anti-occupation banners is another problem in the public protests. “There are a few, but just one is enough to make some of us uncomfortable,” Hendel explained.

Ran Baratz, founder of the right-leaning news website Meda and former director of communications in the Prime Minister’s Office, downplayed the right-wing protest. “It is easy to defuse their arguments, because many of them are on record as supporting the very changes reform seeks to bring about,” Baratz told ToI. They are simply engaged in the gestures of virtue while submitting to the authority of the establishment. It’s something we haven’t seen before, especially by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.”

Gadi Taub, an influential right-wing intellectual who supports lock, stock, and barrel reform, was less cavalier about the right-wing protest movement. “It’s very small, but it’s more effective than other protests: The right wing is set up to fight the left’s backsliding on comprehensive reform. It knows what it’s fighting for. It’s hard to dismiss and explain right-wing protest.

For Taub, the right-wing protest represented a shift in loyalty by parts of the Zionist religious elite. “Some in that Ashkenazi-majority group realize they have more in common with the secular, Ashkenazi-majority elite, than traditional Sephardic Likud voters or the religious Shas. So they realign politically,” Taub said.

Hendel rejected this interpretation. There is no reorganization, certainly not an ideology. Even less along the descent. “There is just a sense of national accountability, which is what defines our priorities,” he said.

Taub said the eventual fate of comprehensive reform would depend not on the protests of a few thousand on the right, but on the persistence of Likud lawmakers. Lawmakers who back down now will pay a heavy political price. But, as we’ve seen in the past, that doesn’t mean they won’t. The fate of reform is being decided as we speak.”