Netanyahu had been expected to make a televised statement on Monday morning announcing the plans had been suspended. But, amid reports that his nationalist-religious coalition risked breaking apart, Israeli TV stations said the statement was postponed.
Earlier, a source in his Likud party and another source closely involved in the legislation said Netanyahu would suspend the overhaul, which has ignited some of Israel’s biggest-ever demonstrations and drew an intervention by the head of state.
“For the sake of the unity of the people of Israel, for the sake of responsibility, I call on you to stop the legislative process immediately,” President Isaac Herzog said on Twitter.
The warning by Herzog, who is supposed to stand above politics and whose function is largely ceremonial, underlined the alarm that the divisions triggered by the proposals have caused.
It followed a dramatic night of protests in cities across Israel, with tens of thousands flooding streets following Netanyahu’s announcement that he had dismissed Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
A day earlier, Gallant had made a televised appeal for the government to halt its flagship overhaul of the judicial system, warning that the deep split it had opened up in Israeli society was affecting the military and threatening national security.
During furious scenes in the Knesset early on Monday, opposition members of parliament attacked Simcha Rothman, the committee chairman who has shepherded the bill, with cries of “Shame! Shame!” and accusations comparing the bill to militant groups that want the destruction of Israel.
“This is a hostile takeover of the State of Israel. No need for Hamas, no need for Hezbollah,” one lawmaker was heard saying to Rothman as the constitution committee approved a key bill to go forward for ratification.
“The law is balanced and good for Israel,” Rothman said.
Three months after it took power, Gallant’s removal has plunged Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition into crisis as it also faces a deepening security emergency in the occupied West Bank.
In a sign of the tensions within the coalition, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who heads one of the hard-line pro-settler parties in the coalition, called for the overhaul to go ahead.
“We must not stop the judiciary reform and must not surrender to anarchy,” he tweeted.
The shekel, which has seen big swings over recent weeks as the political turbulence has played out, fell 0.7 percent in early trading before recovering some ground as expectations grew the legislation would be halted.
As opposition spread, the head of the Histadrut labor union, Arnon Bar-David, called for a general strike if the proposals were not halted.
“Bring back the country’s sanity. If you don’t announce in a news conference today that you changed your mind, we will go on strike.”
Israeli media reported that takeoffs from Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion International Airport have been suspended.
The judicial overhaul, which would give the executive more control over appointing judges to the Supreme Court and allow the government to override court rulings on the basis of a simple parliamentary majority, has drawn mass protests for weeks.
While the government says the overhaul is needed to rein in activist judges and set a proper balance between the elected government and the judiciary, opponents see it as an undermining of legal checks and balances and a threat to Israel’s democracy.
Netanyahu, on trial on corruption charges that he denies, has so far vowed to continue with the project and a central part of the overhaul package, a bill that would tighten political control over judicial appointments, is due to be voted on in parliament this week.
As well as drawing opposition from the business establishment, the project has caused alarm among Israel’s allies. The United States said it was deeply concerned by Sunday’s events and saw an urgent need for compromise, while repeating calls to safeguard democratic values.All takeoffs from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv are being halted as workers strike against Netanyahu’s proposed plan.
“I have ordered an immediate halt to takeoffs at the airport,” the head of the workers’ union at Ben Gurion Airport, Pinchas Idan, said.
Tens of thousands of travellers are expected to be affected by the changed flight schedule.
Airports, ports, malls, food chains and others are coming to a halt after Israel’s main labour union announced a general strike earlier on Monday.
Turkey’s national flag carrier Turkish Airlines canceled its flights between Istanbul and Tel Aviv citing the political crisis in Israel.
Al Jazeera’s Ahmad Hazeem reporting from Tel Aviv said thousands of protesters have been gathering in the main square in Tel Aviv and the crowd is expected to grow to 150,000 by 8pm.
He added that Netanyahu was supposed to speak at 11am, but five hours later the public is still waiting to hear him.
“There are talks in the coalition. Only the minister of national security is holding his ground, refusing to accept what Netanayhu is supposed to announce, which is the postponement of these reforms in the Knesset until May.
“What [the protesters] want is not a postponement on this reform plan, not talks with the opposition; they want this reform plan to be dead, they don’t want to see it anymore. They consider it a coup by the religious far right parties in Israel to change the country and make it a dictatorship and to kill Israeli democracy,” Hazeem said.
Supporters of judicial overhaul mobilising amid fears of violence
Supporters of the judicial overhaul are also mobilising, with a counter demonstration planned later on Monday in front of the Knesset.
Football fans such as La Familia, an ultra-group associated with the Beitar Jerusalem club, are expected to take to the streets in favour of Netanyahu’s plan.
Fear of violence is mounting as social media posts call for attacks on left-wing Israelis. Police presence has been reinforced to handle possible trouble.
In a tweet, Netanyahu appealed to supporters on both sides to avoid violence.
PM not allowed ‘to change the rules of the game’: Former Israeli minister of justice
Yossi Beilin, Israel’s former minister of justice, told Al Jazeera the proposed reforms are not positive for Israel as claimed by the prime minister and his allies.
“It is a threat to our democracy and the idea of changing the rules of the game by weakening in a consequential way the judicial arm is a big mistake and it’s harming Israel already economically, policy-wise,” Beilin said.
“On the other hand, it exposed the strength of our democracy and the fact that hundreds of thousands of people are getting out, taking to the streets, and protesting against the weakening of the court – the supreme court especially – proves that just to have a majority in the elections it doesn’t mean you are allowed to change the rules of the game,” he added.
German government expresses ‘concern’ over demonstrations
The German government has expressed concern about the escalating disputes over judicial reform in Israel, a German news agency has reported.
Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in Berlin that appeals by Israeli President Herzog must be and are taken very seriously, DPA news agency reported.
“As close friends of Israel, we naturally do not interfere in the internal affairs of a state, and yet we naturally look with concern
at what has been happening in Israel in recent days,” Hebestreit added.
