By Ari Rabinovitch
JERUSALEM — Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in hospital after being fitted with a pacemaker on Sunday, as tens of thousands of people converged on Jerusalem to protest a planned overhaul of the Supreme Court being debated in parliament.
With Israel embroiled in its most serious domestic political crisis in decades, the 73-year-old leader was rushed to Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv on Saturday after a heart monitor implanted a week earlier in what was described as a dehydration episode detected a “temporary arrhythmia,” his doctors said.
The pacemaker procedure went smoothly and Netanyahu was expected to be discharged later on Sunday, his office said. However, Israeli media reported he may stay an extra night in the hospital. A medical source familiar with the case said doctors were recommending Netanyahu stay another night.
The prime minister’s office, which said planned trips to Cyprus and Turkey had been postponed, said it would provide an update if there were new details.
Netanyahu had been expected to vote in parliament on Monday on a key element of his highly contested judicial overhaul, which has ignited months of nationwide protests and concern abroad over Israel’s democratic health.
Lawmakers on Sunday began debating the bill, which would limit the court’s ability to void decisions made by the government and ministers it deems “unreasonable”. The result of Monday’s vote could come as soon as that evening.
As the debate in parliament went on, tens of thousands of Israelis opposing the judicial changes lined city streets in Jerusalem carrying flags and beating drums under a scorching summer sun. Many pitched tents in a park near the Knesset.
“We’re worried, we’re scared, we’re angry. We’re angry that people are trying to change this country, trying to create a democratic backslide. But we’re also very, very hopeful,” Tzivia Guggenheim, 24, a student in Jerusalem, said outside her tent.
Netanyahu’s coalition with a clutch of nationalist and religious parties has been determined to push ahead with plans that would curb the Supreme Court’s power to overrule government actions on legal grounds, arguing that the court has become too politically interventionist.
Critics say the amendment is being rushed through parliament and will open the door to abuses of power by removing one of the few effective checks on the executive’s authority in a country without a formal written constitution.
Supporters say opponents of the bill want to override the will of the majority that voted Netanyahu’s government into power last year, and the battle has opened up deep divisions in Israeli society.
‘DANGEROUS CRACKS’
The crisis has spread to the military, with hundreds of volunteer army reservists threatening not to show up for service if the government continues with the plans, and former military and security chiefs warning that national security was at risk.
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi wrote in an open letter that “dangerous cracks” are formed when political disputes seep into the military, and he called on all reservists to report for service.
“If we don’t have a strong and united defense force, if Israel’s best do not serve in the IDF, we will no longer be able to exist as a country in the region,” Halevi wrote.
Arnon Bar-David, head of the Histadrut labor federation that represents hundreds of thousands of public sector workers, was trying to broker a last-minute compromise version of the bill.
He has stopped short of threatening a strike, such as the one which helped push Netanyahu into a partial climb-down over an earlier stage of the overhaul in March. But he promised “further action” later in the day should an agreement not be reached.
The furor over the judiciary has contributed to strains in relations with the US, as have surging Israeli-Palestinian violence and progress in Iran’s nuclear program.
Washington has urged Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption charges he denies, to seek broad agreements over any judicial reforms.
First elected to Israel’s top office in 1996, Netanyahu has been both dynamic and polarizing. He spearheaded a free-market revolution in Israel, while showing distrust of internationally backed peacemaking with the Palestinians and world powers’ negotiations to cap Iran’s nuclear program.
In early October, a few weeks before winning a national election, Netanyahu fell ill during the Jewish fast of Yom Kippur and was briefly hospitalized.
