Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the mass protest in Tel Aviv last night against the government's planned conversion reforms at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday.
"Two months ago there was a huge demonstration in Israel, the mother of all demonstrations. Millions of people took to the streets to vote in the elections. One of the main issues they voted for was reforming the justice system," Netanyahu said.
He added, "In recent days, I have been hearing an attempt to claim that the public did not know what they were voting for. So here is a quote, one of many, from me and my friends from the election campaign, this is my quote: "We will make the necessary corrections in the judicial system out of consideration and responsibility. We are going to fix the system, save it and not destroy it."
"My friends and I, many of whom are here around the table, have said this countless times, and millions of citizens who voted for the right-wing camp knew about the intention to make a comprehensive reform of the judicial system. More than that, they demanded it from us. Everyone who was at our election conventions, in the city centers, in the neighborhoods, we heard the voices rising from the crowd. There are also many of those who did not vote for us who knew and agreed that there was a need to make fundamental corrections in the judicial system. Indeed, this call has come over the years from a long line of government ministers from across the political spectrum. Including the late Tommy Lapid, the late Yaakov Neeman, Haim Ramon, Daniel Friedman and many others.
Netanyahu said that he seeks to have a substantive discussion about the reform. "Things in this spirit were said by governments on the right and the left, and no one thought at the time to say that this was the "end of democracy". As a matter of fact, what we seek to do is to restore the balance between the branches that existed in Israel for 50 years, and that exists today in all Western democracies. Therefore, we need to have a substantive, in-depth, serious discussion in the legislation committee, in the constitution committee of the Knesset, and not get carried away with inflammatory slogans of civil war and the destruction of the state."
"I must say that when we were in the opposition, we did not call for a civil war and we did not talk about the destruction of the country, even when the government made decisions that we strongly opposed, and I expect the leaders of the opposition to behave in a similar manner.
"I am convinced that after the important and in-depth discussion in the Constitutional Committee, we will complete the reform legislation in a way that will correct what needs to be corrected, fully protect individual rights and restore the public's trust in the judicial system, which is so in need of this reform," concluded the Prime Minister," he added.
