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Netanyahu government advances judicial reforms as protests intensify to include IDF reservists
(JTA) — The ninth week of protests in Israel brought hundreds of thousands of opponents to judicial reform into the streets on Saturday night, but within hours Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition advanced the legislation through the Knesset.
Protests against the reforms extended to areas of Israel’s establishment where political protest was once unthinkable, including among combat pilots and staff for the national airline, El Al.
The government is opening bids for other airlines to fly Netanyahu and his wife to Rome later this week after too few El Al employees signed up to work the trip. The airline denied that the worker shortage reflected a protest against the prime minister, who is scheduled to meet with Italy’s new right-wing leader, Giorgia Meloni.
But others are making clear that their refusal to show up to work represents a protest against Israel’s right-wing government, which is seeking to sap the judiciary of its power.
Thirty-seven of 40 combat pilots in the military reserves said they would skip the first day of a required week of training to “devote our time to discourse and thinking for the sake of democracy and the unity of the people, and therefore we will not report to reserve duty on this day, with the exception of operational activity,” according to a translation of the letter published by the Times of Israel. They would turn up as required for the rest of the week, they said.
Reserves pilots train multiple times a year, a regimen that is seen as critical to their effectiveness. Individual soldiers have refused to serve in the past, at times earning jail sentences, but a mass action by one of the most elite units is unheard of. The squadron in this case was responsible for destroying a nascent nuclear reactor in Syria in 2007.
The combat pilots joined a growing protest movement against legislation that would allow a simple majority of 61 Knesset members to overrule the Supreme Court and constrain the court in other ways. The Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee on Sunday advanced the legislation, which has already passed the full Knesset on a first of the three required votes to become law, making only limited changes.
The opposition sees the reforms as gutting the independence of the judiciary, which has been a bulwark against the erosion of the rights of women, non-Orthodox Jews, and minorities including Arab and LGBTQ Israelis.
Netanyahu has said he is ready to negotiate on the judicial reforms, but the opposition wants him to first stop the legislative process; coalition lawmakers have said they want to pass the laws by Passover, at the beginning of April.
Organizers said 400,000 people turned out for the ninth weekly Saturday night protest, over 150,000 in Tel Aviv alone.
In his remarks opening his weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu said he understood “that many of the protesters are loyal citizens most of whom don’t understand the details of the reform at all.”
The protests had been peaceful until Thursday, when mounted police used water cannons against crowds in Tel Aviv gathered for a “Day of Disruption.” Another “Day of Disruption” is planned for this week.
How far that disruption extends within the armed forces remains to be seen. Opposition leaders urged reservists to show up as required. Benny Gantz, who leads the Blue and White party and who was the defense minister until December, called on reservists and regular troops “not to give in to refusal to serve, although you are in pain.”
In a letter leaked Friday, Tomer Bar, the general who commands the Air Force, appeals to reservists not to miss call-ups, while saying, “I am aware of and sensitive to the difficulties and challenges we are all facing these days.”
Netanyahu on Sunday tweeted a photograph of himself when he was young and serving in a commando unit. “When we are called to reserves, we always turn up,” he said.
Among the dozens of appeals to Netanyahu to stop the reforms a standout was from 10 of the troops who joined his older brother, Yonatan, in rescuing hostages held on a plane in Entebbe, Uganda, in 1976. Yonatan was killed during the raid, which is seen as emblematic of Israel’s refusal to deal with terrorists and willingness to go to extreme lengths to rescue Jews in peril. Benjamin Netanyahu has since made his brother his lodestar.
The 10 veterans were especially offended by Netanyahu’s likening of the protesters — whom they have joined — to the settlers who rampaged through a West Bank village last week, burning houses and cars and injured dozens.
“We did the impossible with our brothers in arms,” said the letter, posted Saturday on social media. “And you and your cohort are doing everything you can to undermine motivation and to crack up Israeli society.”
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Denmark Unveils $18 Million Plan to Combat Rising Antisemitism Amid Surge in Attacks
People take part in an anti-Israel demonstration in Copenhagen, Denmark, Oct. 4, 2025. Photo: Ritzau Scanpix/Emil Nicolai Helms via REUTERS
Denmark’s government on Tuesday unveiled an $18 million, five-year plan to combat antisemitism through 2030, focusing on security, education, and research, as the country’s Jewish community continues to face a wave of targeted attacks and hostility.
“Following Hamas’s terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza, there has been a flare-up in antisemitism in Denmark,” the Danish Justice Ministry said while announcing the new plan.
Building on Denmark’s first national plan to combat antisemitism from 2022, the new initiative will focus on boosting security for Jewish institutions, combating online hate, and introducing programs for children and young people.
As a new addition to the previous plan set to expire at the end of this year, the newly released program will appoint an Education Ministry coordinator to fight antisemitism in schools and establish an association to combat antisemitic hate crimes.
Other measures will include expanded educational programs, giving all upper secondary schools the opportunity to apply for study trips that teach students about the Holocaust and antisemitism.
“Jews in Denmark should neither feel persecuted, harassed, nor receive death threats,” Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said in a statement.
“Fighting antisemitism must be done through education and prevention, as well as tough and firm consequences towards those who spread antisemitism and hatred against Jews,” he continued. “Jews in Denmark must be able to live and move freely and safely.”
The new plan also includes the creation of the Weinberger Institute, a research center focused on hate crimes, led by Jonathan Fischer, a former vice president of the Jewish Community of Denmark.
The government’s new initiatives come amid a startling rise in anti-Jewish hostility in the country, with attacks that include vandalism of businesses, murals, and memorials, as well as physical assaults and death threats targeting Jews and Israelis.
According to the Danish Jewish Community’s Department for Mapping and Registering Antisemitic Incidents, the country recorded 207 antisemitic incidents in 2024, up 71 percent from 121 the previous year and up sharply from just nine before the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.
Over the last few years, the local Jewish community in Denmark has experienced a sharp rise in antisemitic bullying, violence, and death threats.
“Danish Jews are part of our common culture, history, and soul, and we as a society have a responsibility to surround our Jewish fellow citizens when antisemitism rears its ugly face,” Hummelgaard said.
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More Than 200 Celebrities Join Campaign Calling for Israel to Release Convicted Terrorist Marwan Barghouti
Marwan Barghouti gestures as Israeli police bring him into the District Court for his judgment hearing in Tel Aviv, May 20, 2004. Photo: Reuters / Pool / David Silverman.
Paul Simon, Sting, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton, and Margaret Atwood are among the more than 200 cultural figures who have backed a campaign calling for Israel to release Palestinian terrorist mastermind Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences plus an additional 40 years in prison for orchestrating deadly terrorist attacks during the Second Intifada.
The celebrities who support the campaign are recognizable in the music, film, music, literature, and sports industries. They include actors Ian McKellen, Mark Ruffalo, Cynthia Nixon, Simon Pegg, Susan Sarandon, Javier Bardem, Stephen Fry, Hannah Einbinder, and Ilana Glazer. Others who have joined the campaign include author Sally Rooney; broadcaster and former footballer Gary Lineker; and the musicians Annie Lennox, Brian Eno, Fontaines D.C, Massive Attack, and Mabel.
They are all urging the United Nations and governments around the world to pressure Israel to free Marwan, 66, who has so far spent 23 years in Israeli prison. They also condemn what they describe as Barghouti’s “violent mistreatment and denial of legal rights whilst imprisoned.”
According to Israeli officials, Barghouti co-founded Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a US-designated terrorist group that carried out suicide bombings and shootings attacks during the Second Intifada from 2000-2005, and formerly was the head of Fatah’s Tanzim armed wing. Barghouti, who denied having such a leadership role, was arrested in 2002 and convicted for helping to plan terrorist attacks during the Second Intifada that killed five civilians. He has been nicknamed the “Palestinian Mandela” by his supporters.
“Everyone that believes in freedom and dignity for the Palestinian people should join in the call for his immediate release” said Scottish actor Brian Cox from “Succession.” French writer Annie Ernaux claimed Barghouti “embodies the possibility of peace which [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu refuses, determined as he is to continue with the expansion of settlements in the West Bank.”
The International Campaign to Free Marwan that was launched on Nov. 29 is spearheading the efforts, which they claim resemble the cultural movement that helped secure the freedom of Nelson Mandela and ended apartheid in South Africa. Others who are backing the campaign to secure Barghouti’s freedom include billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson, journalist Peter Beinart, Israeli architect Eyal Weizman, author and speaker Gabor Maté, and activist and author Angela Davis.
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StandWithUs Legal Team Requests Florida Investigate Guinness World Records for Anti-Israel Policy
In 2019, students, faculty and parents from the San Diego Jewish Academy broke the Guinness World Record for most sandwiches made in under three minutes, all of which were donated to San Diego’s Alpha Project, an organization dedicated to helping the homeless achieve self-sufficiency. Photo: Courtesy.
StandWithUs, the international nonprofit organization that fights antisemitism and promotes education about Israel, has called on the state of Florida to investigate Guinness World Records (GWR) over its ban on applications from Israel and to ensure that public funds do not support companies engaged in such a “discriminatory policy” against the Jewish state.
StandWithUs Saidoff Law, which carries out legal action for the pro-Israel group, sent a letter on Thursday to members of the Florida State Board of Administration (SBA) following the revelation this week that GWR has enforced a policy since 2023 not to accept submission applications from Israel and the Palestinian territories. Saidoff Law formally requested that the board investigate GWR and its affiliate Guinness World Records North America regarding the “boycott policy” to see if they should be included on Florida’s official list of “Scrutinized Companies or Other Entities that Boycott Israel” in accordance with Florida law. Guinness World Records North America is registered in Florida as a foreign profit corporation.
Created in 2016, the list currently includes 109 companies or entities that participate in a boycott of Israel, including actions that limit commercial relations with Israel or Israeli-controlled territories. The SBA is prohibited from acquiring direct holdings of the companies on this list, which is updated and published every quarter following review and approval by SBA trustees. In late September, 91 new entities were added to the list.
StandWithUs Saidoff Law is urging the Florida State Board of Administration to review GWR’s actions to see if they can be added on the list. “We hope that prompt action from the SBA will reaffirm Florida’s strong commitment to opposing discriminatory boycotts and upholding the integrity of the state’s investment and contracting policies,” the letter stated. It was signed by StandWithUs Saidoff Law Director Yael Lerman and Assistant Director Gadi Dotz.
Guinness World Records recently rejected a submission application by an Israeli charity that is organizing an event where a record-breaking 2,000 kidney donors will gather in one place. GWR said that since November 2023, “we are not generally processing record applications from the Palestinian Territories [sic] or Israel, or where either is given as the attempt location, except those done in cooperation with a UN humanitarian aid relief agency.” The policy was enforced shortly after the start of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, which began with the Hamas-led massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
GWR said it is “monitoring the situation carefully” and its policy is subject to a monthly review. “We hope to be in a position to receive new inquiries soon,” it noted.
StandwithUs Saidoff Law wrote in its letter to Florida’s State Board of Administration that GWR’s “refusal to engage in commercial relations with entities in Israel and Israeli-controlled territories … appears to be intentional, discriminatory in that it singles out Israel and Israeli-controlled territories despite its political neutrality policy, and is not based on neutral business criteria. Also, it squarely falls within Florida’s definition of a boycott of Israel.”
According to Florida law, a boycott of Israel means “refusing to deal, terminating business activities, or taking other actions to limit commercial relations with Israel, or persons or entities doing business in Israel or in Israeli-controlled territories, in a discriminatory manner.”