After the government promised to implement judicial reforms, Israeli protest leaders called for strikes and roadblocks

The new Israeli government seems unfazed despite a sizable crowd – reported at 80,000 by some news outlets – assembling in Tel Aviv Saturday night in the pouring rain to protest against proposed judicial reforms.

MK Miki Zohar responded to the Tel Aviv protest by saying, “This evening, there were tens of thousands at the march; at the elections two and a half months ago, there were millions.”

He explained, “We promised the public change, governance, and reforms, and we will carry through on those promises.

Bezalel Smotrich, the minister of finance, claimed: “In the year of the previous socialist government, we protested often, but the media scarcely highlighted the demonstrations before the fact or by mistake.”

“In spite of this, we overthrew the administration and won the elections. We have the country’s support and will improve the justice system with its help.

To push the government to respond to the protests, protesters have promised to intensify their protest tactics, including calling for strikes that will shut down the economy.

“I urge for the extensive use of the two instruments accessible to individuals who are not prepared to wake up one morning and discover they are no longer living in a democracy,” former Meretz MK Yair Golan said on Ynet news. “And that is the right to demonstrate and strike,” Golan added.

Golan asserted that various economic sectors have already decided to go on strike.

“We need to step up the pace. “Until economic life is crippled, until services are not given, and until roads are stopped, Netanyahu’s destructive gang won’t realize that we’re serious,” Golan stated.

“The battle will be challenging and bitter, but we will prevail with grit, bravery, and persistence. Israel has to be rescued.

The head of the Black Flag protest movement, which planned weekly protests when Netanyahu was the prime minister, Roi Newman, told Channel 12 news on Saturday that he is aware that preparations are being made for “strikes by companies.”