Shikma Bressler in an interview for his weekend show at Walla Studio! June 08, 2023 (Stills: Ruben Castro)
The protest against the legal revolution enters its 23rd week tomorrow, and continues to bring tens of thousands of Israelis to intersections and streets every week. And as long as Justice Minister Yariv Levin's legal reform is on the table, the protest leaders are determined to continue intensifying their activities, as Shekma Bressler, one of the protest leaders, made clear in an interview at the Walla studio.
"Nothing has changed. The legislation is still on the table, the gun is pointed at the head: It's true that the government says they want agreements, but they can pass a law within a few hours to change the composition of the judicial selection committee, and you have to listen to what the coalition members say one by one – that they will continue to legislate if there is no agreement," Bressler says. "If I knew that it would really stop and that the State of Israel would really move forward, then I have nothing to leave anymore, but the citizens have no guarantee of it. Experience teaches us that we have nothing to rely on. We understood that we are the barrier between democratic and dictatorial Israel, and that's why we're on the street."
Determined to intensify activity while reform is on the table. Shikma Bressler at a demonstration, March 25, 2023 (Photo: Reuven Castro)
Bressler, a physicist by profession and mother of four who has become one of the most prominent and well-known faces in the civil protest against the revolution, outlined in an interview the conditions and demands for ending the weekly demonstrations against the government. "I'm the first one who would love to stay home on Saturday night," she says, and immediately clarifies and clarifies: "The first condition - remove these laws, and it's not just three laws, but a set of dozens of laws that lead to a dictatorship or something very sectoral that doesn't see the public good. Do not freeze. Cancel. Remove them, completely, so that we know that if you want to return you will have a process to go through and not from one day to the next you change the regime system. Secondly, say – declare – we are there until white smoke comes out, and do not threaten that if we do not reach an agreement, you will unilaterally return to legislating as before. And anchor it in legislation, make laws that promise us that you don't break the dishes tomorrow and start over."
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She became a leader on a national scale overnight. Shikma Bressler arrested at a protest, March 23, 2023 (Photo: official website, none)
At the same time as the Saturday night demonstrations, the protest against the legal revolution is constantly holding demonstrations and vigils outside the homes of government ministers and MKs, disruptions in conferences and meetings, and has even expanded overseas, with demonstrators in Los Angeles, New York, Paris and Washington chasing coalition members and disrupting their official visits abroad with embarrassing incidents. Bressler does not accept criticism of the personal persecution and style of some of the demonstrations: "We must remember that the most violent thing done here recently by the regime against the citizens of Israel is a dictatorial coup attempt. A dictatorship is a very violent thing that gets its power of government by brute force and not from the one chosen by the people. We have seen very violent coalition moves in the establishment of a budget that harms entire populations. So it's true that shouting with a megaphone is violent, but the magnitude has to be proportionate," she says.
"A person who lends his hand to a violent and destructive move such as turning Israel into a dictatorship should walk around with a mark of Cain on his forehead. We don't have the ability to imprint signs of Cain on people, our way of showing that is to show everywhere that these people are there that they should be ashamed and embarrassed. You don't have to be violent, you don't have to hurt them, or touch them, because it hurts them and us. The letter of Cain is a Jewish expression and its meaning is clear. People who lend their hand to turning Israel into a dictatorship should not sit quietly in a restaurant but be embarrassed, embarrassed and ashamed."
Demonstration against government representatives in New York, June 3, 2023 (Photo: Walla!, Shlomo Weiss)
Not worried about the weakening of the protests. Demonstrators block Ayalon, June 3, 2023 (Photo: Reuven Castro)
Bressler is also not bothered by the weakening of the protest or claims that it has spread to other issues, such as the anti-Haredi demonstrations in Bnei Brak and the preoccupation with the draft law. "Naturally, we are talking about an event that lasts for many weeks and meets reality and current events changes and we are people and we respond to these changes," she says, "but it worked then, and works to this day and is tested in the test of results. In practice, the laws are not progressing, and the things they want to do are not progressing, so the protest is very successful in its initial configuration and in its current configuration, our job is to make sure that it continues to succeed in the future, until we anchor in a way that we can trust that deep changes will only be accepted by broad consensus. Constituent Council, Presidential Commission of one kind or another. It doesn't matter the name. We have to come out of this protest with the knowledge that from here the State of Israel is only moving forward to a democracy that is stronger and does not fall into dark worlds."
Despite becoming a national leader almost overnight, Bressler isn't signaling she's headed for politics. "Party politics don't interest me. The protest is very political, but it is very non-partisan. We must continue to act on the civil political level. We have abandoned the area for too long and show that most of the public actually wants something different. But for me personally, the Knesset is not my place. I have no such whim or desire to get there."
The full interview airs on his upcoming weekend show on Walla Plus.
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