About this episode
Nationwide strikes and protests erupted in Israel as outrage grew over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul the country’s courts. Many saw the move as a threat to Israel’s democracy. And on Monday, Netanyahu announced he would put the plan on pause. Read more: For months , Israelis have rallied against the country’s right-wing government as it tries to force a drastic overhaul of the Supreme Court. But protests intensified when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, after Gallant criticized Netanyahu’s judiciary reform. The country was at a standstill as Israeli universities, workers’ unions, hospitals, malls and Israel’s national air carrier, El Al, announced a general strike and the international airport terminated outgoing flights indefinitely. And it seems the protests had an effect. On Monday, after a long day of protests, Netanyahu announced a delay to the judicial reform proposal. The Washington Post’s Steve Hendrix in Jerusalem walks us through what happened, what this means for Israel and what might come. Join Post Reports LIVE on April 13th! Martine Powers will host a live conversation in D.C. with best-selling author Curtis Sittenfeld at Sixth and I, in partnership with Politics & Prose. Sittenfeld is the author of books like “Eligible” and “American Wife.” Her latest novel is “Romantic Comedy,” about a late-night comedy writer’s search for love. Listeners can purchase tickets here , and if you can’t make it to D.C., you can always join via a livestream.