'I'm hopeful' Rare show of popular unity against the far right

One word is heard more often than any other on the streets of Jerusalem these days: democracy.

- Bethan McKernan and Quique Kierzenbaum

About 100,000 people sang, shouted and banged pots and pans outside the Knesset (parliament) yesterday afternoon, many carrying Israel’s blue and white flag.

The demonstrators were tired; some had been up all night. But after three months of unrelenting pressure, the biggest protest movement in Israeli history then achieved its goal: the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, finally announced a halt to his government’s judicial overhaul weakening the supreme court.

“I am here today because I am worried about the future, about what the future will be like for my six-year-old,” said Sharon Pelin, a teacher from Jerusalem.

While left-wing Israelis and Palestinians have levelled criticism at the protest movement for defending the supreme court, which plays a major role in upholding the occupation of the Palestinian territories, the mobilisation of huge swathes of Israeli society – usually highly polarised – is remarkable.

Demonstrations that began in central Tel Aviv on cold Saturday nights in January, shortly after the new government took power, have evolved into a mass movement unlike anything Israel has seen before. Yesterday, the 12 weeks of growing protests culminated in a general strike across the country that closed hospitals and nurseries, and grounded flights.

As evening came, demonstrators were joined by several thousand counter-protesters, mobilised by Netanyahu’s Likud party. Police were reinforced for possible trouble after social media posts called for attacks on leftwing Israelis.