TEL AVIV: Caution prevailed in Israel Tuesday ahead of the first talks between the government and opposition after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paused controversial judicial reforms which sparked a general strike and mass protests.
With the crisis far from over, President Isaac Herzog’s office said he had invited representatives of the ruling coalition and the two main opposition parties “for a first dialogue meeting” at his residence from 7:30 p.m. (1630 GMT).
After three months of increasing tensions that split the nation, Netanyahu bowed to pressure in the face of a nationwide walkout Monday which hit airports, hospitals and more, while tens of thousands of reform opponents rallied outside parliament in Jerusalem.
“Out of a will to prevent a rupture among our people, I have decided to pause the second and third readings of the bill” to allow time for dialogue, the prime minister said in a broadcast.
The decision to halt the legislative process marked a dramatic U-turn for the premier, who just a day earlier announced he was sacking his defense minister who had called for the very same step.
The move was greeted with skepticism in Israel, with the president of the Israel Democracy Institute think-tank remarking it does not amount to a peace deal.
“Rather, it’s a cease-fire perhaps for regrouping, reorganizing, reorienting and then charging — potentially — charging ahead,” Yohanan Plesner told journalists.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid reacted warily, saying Monday he wanted to be sure “that there is no ruse or bluff.”
A joint statement Tuesday from Lapid’s party and that of Benny Gantz, the former defense minister, said such talks will stop immediately “if the law is put on the Knesset’s (parliament’s) agenda.”
The opposition had previously refused to negotiate over the reforms — which would hand politicians more power over the judiciary — until the legislative process was stopped.
“The goal is to reach an agreement,” Netanyahu said in a statement Tuesday.
Activists who have led nearly three months of protests against the reform package vowed to continue their rallies.
“This is another attempt of Netanyahu trying to gaslight the Israeli public in order to weaken the protest and then enact a dictatorship,” the Umbrella Movement of demonstrators said.
“We will not stop the protest until the judicial coup is completely stopped,” it added in a statement.
The crisis has revealed deep rifts within Netanyahu’s fledgling coalition, an alliance with far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich asserted “there will be no turning back” on the judicial overhaul, in a tweet Monday.
Fellow far-right cabinet member, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, had pressed his supporters to rally in favor of the reforms.
Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party revealed on Monday that the decision to delay the legislation involved an agreement to expand the minister’s portfolio after he threatened to quit if the overhaul was put on hold.
Writing in the left-wing daily Haaretz, political correspondent Yossi Verter said the pause was “a victory for the protesters, but the one who really bent Netanyahu and trampled on him is Itamar Ben-Gvir.”
The affair has hit the coalition’s standing among the Israeli public, just three months after it took office.
Netanyahu’s Likud party has dipped seven points, according to a poll by Israel’s Channel 12 which predicted the government would lose its majority in the 120-seat parliament if elections were held.
The fate of the ousted defense minister, Yoav Gallant, was unknown on Tuesday with speculation in Israeli media that he could be reinstated.
Gallant, who had warned the crisis threatened national security, on Monday welcomed “the decision to stop the legislative process in order to conduct dialogue,” his team said.
Caution in crisis-hit Israel as talks set to start
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Caution in crisis-hit Israel as talks set to start
- Embattled leader acknowledges divisions roiling the nation, announces delay for the legislation
- Critics say the legislative package would hobble the country’s system of checks and balances
Tunisia’s famed blue-and-white village threatened after record rains
- The one-time home of French philosopher Michel Foucault and writer Andre Gide, the village is protected under Tunisian preservation law, pending a UNESCO decision on its bid for World Heritage status
SIDI BOU SAID, Tunisia: Perched on a hill overlooking Carthage, Tunisia’s famed blue-and-white village of Sidi Bou Said now faces the threat of landslides, after record rainfall tore through parts of its slopes.
Last week, Tunisia saw its heaviest downpour in more than 70 years. The storm killed at least five people, with others still missing.
Narrow streets of this village north of Tunis — famed for its pink bougainvillea and studded wooden doors — were cut off by fallen trees, rocks and thick clay. Even more worryingly for residents, parts of the hillside have broken loose.
“The situation is delicate” and “requires urgent intervention,” Mounir Riabi, the regional director of civil defense in Tunis, recently told AFP.
“Some homes are threatened by imminent danger,” he said.
Authorities have banned heavy vehicles from driving into the village and ordered some businesses and institutions to close, such as the Ennejma Ezzahra museum.
- Scared -
Fifty-year-old Maya, who did not give her full name, said she was forced to leave her century-old family villa after the storm.
“Everything happened very fast,” she recalled. “I was with my mother and, suddenly, extremely violent torrents poured down.”
“I saw a mass of mud rushing toward the house, then the electricity cut off. I was really scared.”
Her Moorish-style villa sustained significant damage.
One worker on site, Said Ben Farhat, said waterlogged earth sliding from the hillside destroyed part of a kitchen wall.
“Another rainstorm and it will be a catastrophe,” he said.
Shop owners said the ban on heavy vehicles was another blow to their businesses, as they usually rely on tourist buses to bring in traffic.
When President Kais Saied visited the village on Wednesday, vendors were heard shouting: “We want to work.”
One trader, Mohamed Fedi, told AFP afterwards there were “no more customers.”
“We have closed shop,” he said, adding that the shops provide a livelihood to some 200 families.
- Highly unstable -
Beyond its famous architecture, the village also bears historical and spiritual significance.
The village was named after a 12th-century Sufi saint, Abu Said Al-Baji, who had established a religious center there. His shrine still sits atop the hill.
The one-time home of French philosopher Michel Foucault and writer Andre Gide, the village is protected under Tunisian preservation law, pending a UNESCO decision on its bid for World Heritage status.
Experts say solutions to help preserve Sidi Bou Said could include restricting new development, building more retaining walls and improving drainage to prevent runoff from accumulating.
Chokri Yaich, a geologist speaking to Tunisian radio Mosaique FM, said climate change has made protecting the hill increasingly urgent, warning of more storms like last week’s.
The hill’s clay-rich soil loses up to two thirds of its cohesion when saturated with water, making it highly unstable, Yaich explained.
He also pointed to marine erosion and the growing weight of urbanization, saying that construction had increased by about 40 percent over the past three decades.
For now, authorities have yet to announce a protection plan, leaving home and shop owners anxious, as the weather remains unpredictable.
