Israel and France have both been flooded with mass protests in recent weeks, but the differences are striking, telling and important.
Israel and France have both been flooded with mass protests in recent weeks, but the differences are striking, telling and important.
Demonstrations in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and throughout Israel against proposed judicial reforms have been peaceful and generally orderly.
Israeli lawmakers are expected to pass the first part of the plan to overhaul courts Monday, with a bill that would bar the Supreme Court from invalidating government decisions simply because judges find them “unreasonable.”
Despite the calls for civil disobedience by some former prime ministers and other protest leaders, there has been little to no violence.
Passions are high and tempers have flared, but no one has been seriously injured, and no buildings have been burned or destroyed.
This may change over time as extremists on both sides move further apart and eschew reasonable compromises Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu and other centrists offer.
At the moment, despite the anger and even hatred, the Israeli protests have been models of what our First Amendment guarantees: the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition government for a redress of grievances.
Demonstrations in Paris and other French cities, prompted by the police shooting of a young Arab man, quickly turned violent — with the desecration of a memorial to French Jews deported to their deaths during the Holocaust, burned buildings and cars, rioting and injuries.
