Israel declares state of special alarm to restrict anti-Netanyahu protests

Concentration in front of the Israeli Parliament during the debate on the restriction of protests, Tuesday in Jerusalem.MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP

Israel has amended the legislation on confinement and declared a state of special alarm to restrict the right to demonstrate.

The protests against Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister on trial for corruption, have gathered thousands of citizens despite the severe limitations imposed 10 days ago after the second wave of the pandemic got out of hand.

In a debate that lasted throughout the night of Tuesday, the Knesset (Parliament) limited the protests this Wednesday to a radius of one kilometer from the habitual residence, with up to a maximum of 100 groups of 20 attendees each.

The massive concentrations in front of the official residence of the head of the Government in Jerusalem, which have taken place every week for four months to demand his resignation, will thus be reduced to a testimonial complaint.

Opposition parties, which last week managed to block the approval of the legal reform with the support of Netanyahu's centrist allies, denounced in the House that the new measure violates a basic civil right.

Indicted for bribery, fraud and abuse of power in three scandals, the prime minister was investigated for three years by the anti-corruption police brigade before the Israeli attorney general confirmed the allegations.

The demonstrations against him have not stopped even in the midst of the peak of 8,500 daily infections reached last week in a country of just over nine million inhabitants.

According to a survey by the Institute for Democracy, the veteran president only has the support of 27% of citizens for his management of the health and economic crisis.

To approve the legal restriction of the demonstrations, the centrist partners of the government coalition, led by Defense Minister Benny Gantz, agreed with Netanyahu's conservative Likud party that the "state of special alarm" should be ratified three times a week. within the Cabinet and that its extension will have to be endorsed by the Constitutional Commission of the Knesset.

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the Government is not empowered to prohibit protests, but only to limit the number of attendees.

The prime minister has already anticipated that the general confinement, initially set until October 10, is expected to be extended for several more weeks.

The emergency declaration will in fact prevent thousands of protesters, confined within a thousand meters around their homes, from gathering in front of the official residence of the Chief Executive on Balfour Street in Jerusalem, but it will also serve to limit the influx of ultra-religious Jews. to the synagogues.

The infection rate among the ultra-Orthodox, who make up 12% of the population, is now 28%, compared to a national average of 12%.

"One in three members of the Haredi community is testing positive for the coronavirus," said the director general of the Ministry of Health, Hezi Levi.

The secular sectors of Israeli society have watched with concern the television images of the massive religious ceremonies during Yom Kippur (Repentance Day), celebrated last Monday.

Neither the capacity established by the health authorities was respected nor was the safety distance between the attendees kept.

The beginning, this Friday, of the week of celebrations of Sukot (Feast of Tabernacles) raises fear that contagions will be triggered again among this community.

With their mouths and noses covered by masks, separated by at least two meters - although with less distance in the central areas of the concentration - the thousands of protesters that were deployed last Saturday in the Paris square of Jerusalem, in the The immediate vicinity of Netanyahu's official residence generally respected health instructions.

From now on, the restrictions of the pandemic will usher in the protest marches.