TEL AVIV: Israelis blocked roads and demonstrated on Thursday against a contentious government plan to overhaul the judiciary, hoping to ramp up pressure on lawmakers after parliament reconvened this week following a month-long recess.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paused the overhaul in March after intense pressure and the opposing sides are trying to reach a compromise agreement. But in a sign of the mistrust of his intentions, tens of thousands have continued to protest every Saturday night since.
Thursday’s midweek protest was expected to be smaller, but demonstrators are hoping to remind legislators of their presence and their ability to disrupt the country over their opposition to the overhaul.
Dozens of protests under a sea of Israeli flags choked off major roads and intersections in seaside Tel Aviv, including its main highway. Demonstrations took place outside the homes of Israel’s ceremonial president and the country’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who in exchange for the plan being paused demanded Netanyahu grant him authority over a new national guard, which critics say would amount to his own personal militia.
Police said one protester was arrested for causing disturbances.
Protest leaders have billed Thursday’s event a call for “equality,” expanding their criticism to the rising cost of living in Israel and the military draft exemptions granted to most ultra-Orthodox Jews. Protesters dyed white a pool of water in the square of Israel’s national theater in Tel Aviv, to symbolize a recent milk price hike.
The plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary, advanced by Israel’s most right-wing government ever, plunged Israel into one of its worst domestic crises, ripping open longstanding societal rifts and creating new ones. While the freeze in the legislation eased tensions somewhat, Netanyahu’s allies are pushing him to move ahead on the overhaul. The talks underway, meant to forge a path out of the crisis, do not appear to have produced any results.
Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, faced a barrage of criticism over the legal plan from a broad swath of Israeli society, including business leaders, the booming tech sector and military reservists, who threatened not to show up for duty if the plan was approved. He relented only when a burst of spontaneous protests erupted after he fired his dissenting defense minister, a decision that was later reversed.
Proponents of the plan, which would weaken the Supreme Court and limit judicial oversight on legislation and government decisions, say it is necessary to rein in what they say is an interventionist court and restore power to elected lawmakers.
Opponents say it would upset Israel’s delicate system of checks and balances and imperil its democratic fundamentals.
Israelis block roads in protest against Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul plan
https://arab.news/ce82g
Israelis block roads in protest against Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul plan
- Israeli leader paused the planned overhaul in March after intense pressure
- But tens of thousands have continued to protest every Saturday night in a sign of the mistrust
UN nuclear watchdog says it’s unable to verify whether Iran has suspended all uranium enrichment
VIENNA: Iran has not allowed the United Nations nuclear watchdog to access nuclear facilities affected by the 12-day war in June, according to a confidential report by the watchdog circulated to member states and seen Friday by The Associated Press.
The report from the International Atomic Energy Agency stressed that therefore it “cannot verify whether Iran has suspended all enrichment-related activities,” or the “size of Iran’s uranium stockpile at the affected nuclear facilities.”
The IAEA report on Friday warned that due to the continued lack of access to any of Iran’s four declared enrichment facilities, the agency “cannot provide any information on the current size, composition or whereabouts of the stockpile of enriched uranium in Iran.”
The report stressed that the “loss of continuity of knowledge over all previously declared nuclear material at affected facilities in Iran needs to be addressed with the utmost urgency.”
Iran long has insisted its program is peaceful, but the IAEA and Western nations say Tehran had an organized nuclear weapons program up until 2003.
Highly enriched material should be verified regularly
According to the IAEA, Iran maintains a stockpile of 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60 percent purity — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90 percent.
That stockpile could allow Iran to build as many as 10 nuclear bombs, should it decide to weaponize its program, IAEA director general Rafael Grossi warned in a recent interview with the AP. He added that it doesn’t mean that Iran has such a weapon.
Such highly enriched nuclear material should normally be verified every month, according to the IAEA’s guidelines.
The IAEA also reported that it had observed, through the analysis of commercially available satellite imagery, “regular vehicular activity around the entrance to the tunnel complex at Isfahan.”
The facility in Isfahan, some 350 kilometers (215 miles) southeast of Tehran, was mainly known for producing the uranium gas that is fed into centrifuges to be spun and purified.
Israel has struck buildings at the Isfahan nuclear site, among them a uranium conversion facility. The US also struck Isfahan with missiles during the war last June.
The IAEA also reported that through the analysis of commercially available satellite imagery, it has observed “activities being conducted at some of the affected nuclear facilities, including the enrichment facilities at Natanz and Fordow,” but it added that “without access to these facilities it is not possible for the Agency to confirm the nature and the purpose of the activities.”
The confidential IAEA report also said Friday that Iran did provide access to IAEA inspectors “to each of the unaffected nuclear facilities at least once since the military attacks of June 2025, with the exception of Karun Nuclear Power Plan, which is in the early stages of construction and does not contain nuclear material.”
IAEA joined Geneva talks between Iran and US
The IAEA reported on Friday that Grossi attended negotiations between the US and Iran on Feb. 17 and Feb. 26 in Geneva at which he “provided advice on issues relevant to the verification of Iran’s nuclear program.” The report said that those negotiations are “ongoing.”
The Trump administration has held three rounds of nuclear talks this year with Iran under Omani mediation. Thursday’s round of talks in Geneva ended without a deal, leaving the danger of another Mideast war on the table as the US has gathered a massive fleet of aircraft and warships in the region.
Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Al-Busaidi said technical talks involving lower-level representatives would continue next week in Vienna, the home of the IAEA. The agency is likely to be critical in any deal.
The US is seeking a deal to limit Iran’s nuclear program and ensure it does not develop nuclear weapons.
Iran says it is not pursuing weapons and has so far resisted demands that it halt uranium enrichment on its soil or hand over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
Similar talks last year between the US and Iran about Iran’s nuclear program broke down after Israel launched what became a 12-day war on Iran, that included the US bombing Iranian nuclear sites.
Before the June war, Iran had been enriching uranium up to 60 percent purity.
