(20 Feb 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jerusalem - 20 February 2023
1. Wide of protesters arriving at Jerusalem railway station
2. Mid of protester holding sign, reading (Hebrew): “To be a free nation in our land”
3. Various of protesters arriving at Jerusalem railway station
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Itan Gur Aryeh, 74, retiree from Ben Shemen between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv:
“All the steps that are going to take place now in the Knesset will change us to a pure dictatorship because all the power will be with the government, with the head of the government, and we’ll all be without rights.”
5. Mid of banner with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s picture, reading (English): “Dictator: When dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right.”
6. Tracking of protesters ascending escalator to street
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Hoffman Elhanan, 70, retired soldier from Hod HaSharon near Tel Aviv:
“I took part in two wars and I am war-wounded. A lot of people like me we do not agree with what is going on here. This is the only thing we can do, you know, to protest.”
8. Wide of station
9. SOUNDBITE (Hebrew) Tova Kutlicki, 71, from Had Ness in northern Israel:
“Bibi (Netanyahu) who is on trial, has to stand at court, and he is probably willing to sell off our country so he’ll be prepared to do everything to get let off his trial, and it’s very sad.”
10. Wide of protesters on Jaffa Road headed to Knesset
STORYLINE:
Israel’s government on Monday was pressing ahead with a contentious plan to overhaul the country’s legal system, despite an unprecedented uproar that has included mass protests, warnings from military and business leaders and calls for restraint by the United States.
Thousands of demonstrators were expected to gather outside the parliament, or Knesset, for a second straight week to rally against the plan as lawmakers prepared to hold an initial vote.
Protester Itan Gur Ayreh, 74, said he worries that Israel will become "a dictatorship" under the proposed legal changes.
Another protester, Hoffman Elhanan, was wounded in the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, said many veterans like him are protesting the government's judicial overhaul.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies, a collection of ultra-religious and ultranationalist lawmakers, say the plan is meant to fix a system that has given the courts and government legal advisers too much say in how legislation is crafted and decisions are made.
Critics say it will upend the country’s system of checks and balances and concentrate power in the hands of the prime minister.
They also say that Netanyahu, who is on trial for a series of corruption charges, has a conflict of interest.
The standoff has plunged Israel into one of its greatest domestic crises, sharpening a divide between Israelis over the character of their state and the values they believe should guide it.
Tova Kutlicki traveled from northern Israel to protest Netanyahu's corruption that she says is at the core of the political issue.
Netanyahu "is probably willing to sell off our country so he’ll be prepared to do everything to get let off his trial," she said.
AP video shot by Sam McNeil
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