People & Histories
January – October 2023

The judicial overhaul and the protest movement

A plan by Benjamin Netanyahu's new right-wing government to curb the Supreme Court splits the country and brings the largest protests in Israel's history.

  • The Israeli Democracy Index 2023 — Israel Democracy Institute, IDI (2024)
  • Israel — Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica

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In January 2023 Justice Minister Yariv Levin announced plans to give the government control of judicial appointments and limit the Supreme Court’s power to strike down laws and government decisions. Every Saturday night for months, crowds of up to hundreds of thousands, waving blue-and-white flags, filled Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Street and cities across the country. Tech companies, economists, former security chiefs and military reservists, including air force pilots who threatened not to report for duty, joined in. When Netanyahu fired his defence minister for warning of the security risk in March, a near-general strike forced a pause.

  • The Israeli Democracy Index 2023 — Israel Democracy Institute, IDI (2024)
  • Israel — Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica

In July 2023 the Knesset passed a law barring courts from reviewing decisions on grounds of “reasonableness”. On 1 January 2024 the Supreme Court struck it down by eight votes to seven, the first time it had annulled part of a Basic Law.

  • Israel — Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica
The fight lined up with older divides. Polls showed supporters were mostly religious, right-wing and often Mizrahi, while opponents were mostly secular, centrist or left-wing; each side felt the other was trying to take its country away.
  • The Israeli Democracy Index 2023 — Israel Democracy Institute, IDI (2024)
After 7 October the protest movement turned its energy to volunteering and then to demands for a hostage deal and an inquiry into the failures, but the underlying split remains.
  • The Israeli Democracy Index 2023 — Israel Democracy Institute, IDI (2024)

How it's seen
Supporters of the reform

An unelected, activist Supreme Court, drawn from a narrow secular Ashkenazi elite, had taken powers no other democracy gives its judges; elected majorities should decide.

  • The Israeli Democracy Index 2023 — Israel Democracy Institute, IDI (2024)

Protesters

Israel has no written constitution and a single-chamber parliament controlled by the government, so the court is the only real check on power; the overhaul would endanger minorities and democracy itself.

  • The Israeli Democracy Index 2023 — Israel Democracy Institute, IDI (2024)

Palestinian views

Many Palestinians saw the protests as an argument among Jews about their own democracy that rarely mentioned the occupation; Arab citizens of Israel feared for minority rights but mostly stayed away.

  • The Forgotten Palestinians: A History of the Palestinians in Israel — Ilan Pappé, Yale University Press (2011)

Why it matters today

Israel

The fight over the courts exposed a deep rift over what kind of country Israel should be: more Jewish-religious and majoritarian, or more liberal and secular. Many Israelis believe the division weakened the country before 7 October, and it still shapes the 2026 election.