(Bloomberg) --

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considered a delay to his judicial overhaul plan after a night of enraged demonstrations and Israel’s main trade union launched a strike affecting departures from the international airport. 

Key ministers and aides as well as Netanyahu’s personal lawyer were urging such a pause, while ministers on the right of his government were threatening to break up the coalition if he did so, outlets including Ynet and Channel 12 reported. Bloomberg was not immediately able to confirm the discussions. 

In Pictures: Mass Protests Erupt in Israel Over Supreme Court Plan

Netanyahu’s proposal has sharply divided Israeli society, battered markets and left the country facing key criticism abroad. Long-time allies, including the US, UK, Germany and France, have argued that a fully independent and strong judiciary is vital to a functioning democracy. 

The shekel weakened at the opening before paring losses and President Isaac Herzog called on Netanyahu to halt the legislation “for the sake of the unity of the people of Israel.” 

Thousands had taken to the streets overnight, including around Netanyahu’s home, after the prime minister fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over a speech criticizing the plans to reduce the power of the Supreme Court. Netanyahu was in London when Gallant took his defiant stance.

The proposed legislation is split up into a series of bills. Two key members of Netanyahu’s Likud party said that while a pause might be preferable, they plan to support the latest bill when it comes up for a vote that’s expected to pass this week. 

Overnight, police scuffled with protesters outside Netanyahu’s Jerusalem home while others gathered near the defense ministry in Tel Aviv. They spilled out into the road waving Israeli flags and blocking traffic, making a main highway impassible for hours. 

The law will give politicians a dominant role in selecting judges, including high-court justices, a change from the current system where sitting justices and members of the legal profession hold sway. 

The bill’s proponents say that in nearly every democracy, winners of elections get to select judges, and they are bringing Israel in line with that practice. Its opponents — and they include hundreds of thousands of weekly street demonstrators as well as business, professional and military leaders — say it will concentrate too much power in the hands of the ruling party, damaging democracy.

Netanyahu, who took office again in late 2022, leads the most right-wing and religious government in Israel’s history. His coalition partners have long complained that the Supreme Court stands in the way of their preferred policies, including easy expansion of West Bank settlements, detention of migrants seeking refuge and excusing ultra-Orthodox men from military service to pursue religious studies.

The Biden administration on Sunday reiterated its call for a compromise to be reached. 

“As the President recently discussed with Prime Minister Netanyahu, democratic values have always been, and must remain, a hallmark of the US-Israel relationship,” National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement. “We continue to strongly urge Israeli leaders to find a compromise as soon as possible.”

(Writes through with strike, detail on ministers)

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