© Reuters. An aerial view shows a red line sprayed by protesters on the roads leading to Israel’s Supreme Court as part of a protest on ‘Resistance Day’, as Israel’s prime minister’s nationalist coalition government Benjamin Netanyahu continues with
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By Mayan Lubell
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Jerusalem awoke on Thursday to the sight of a long red line painted by protesters along roads leading to Israel’s Supreme Court, hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a deal compromise for the judicial overhaul planned by his government.
Police said they arrested five people who had dressed up as workers to lead the protest action overnight.
Drone footage showed a small group of people in protective gear spraying a wide red stripe along mostly deserted roads leading from a police and magistrate compound to the Supreme Court in central Jerusalem.
A slogan written in red on the road in Hebrew, Arabic and English at the side of the road read: “Draw the line”.
The far-right government’s drive to limit the Supreme Court’s powers while increasing its own power to select judges has alarmed Israel and abroad about the country’s democratic checks and balances as protests escalate for weeks .
During what they called a “day of resistance”, protesters blocked roads around the commercial center of Tel Aviv and in other cities. At the port of Haifa, a few protesters carrying flags on boats, including former sailors, tried to block the docking lanes.
“We are here to protest against our democracy, our country, because we feel our country is under brutal attack from the government, the Israeli government,” choreographer Renana Raz said in Tel Aviv.
Netanyahu, after leaving late Wednesday for a state visit to Germany that expressed concern over the judicial plan, said a compromise proposal presented by President Isaac Herzog would not restore balance between the branches of government .
His nationalist-religious coalition says the Supreme Court too often goes too far and intervenes in political cases on which it has no mandate to rule. Defenders of the court say it is a bastion of democracy, protecting rights and freedoms.
Economists, legal experts and former security chiefs have warned that the judicial plan, which has yet to be enshrined in law, would wreak havoc on the country’s economy and isolate Israel internationally.
Netanyahu, who faces corruption charges which he denies, says it will strengthen democracy and boost business. Members of his coalition behind the changes hope to get final parliamentary approval by April 2.