Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had to be airlifted to the country’s main international airport after protesters stopped him from driving there.
The demonstrations were part of nationwide protests underway for more than two months against his contentious plan to overhaul the judiciary.
Protesters made blocking Mr Netanyahu’s route to the airport on Thursday the centre of their intensifying efforts to oppose the legal changes, and the optics of the Israeli leader having to make alternate travel plans were a win for the demonstrators.
The helicopter ride, far from the snarling traffic triggered by the protest, was also sure to deepen Mr Netanyahu’s reputation as being out of touch with Israelis at a time when the country finds itself torn apart over the government plan and the economy is slowing.
Thursday’s disruptions also disrupted a visit by US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, whose schedule was rearranged to keep his engagements close to the airport.
Mr Austin briefly waded into the Israeli domestic turmoil during a news conference, where he repeated US President Joe Biden’s recent comments that the “genius of American democracy and Israeli democracy is that they are both built on strong institutions, on checks and balances and on an independent judiciary”.
He also noted that Mr Biden had stressed the need for “building consensus for fundamental changes”.
The protesters, launching a “day of resistance to dictatorship”, descended on the country’s main international airport waving Israeli flags, blocking the road leading to the departures area with their cars.
Elsewhere, protesters blocked main intersections and scuffled with police in the seaside metropolis of Tel Aviv and other cities. A small flotilla of paddle boards and kayaks tried to close off a main maritime shipping lane off the northern city of Haifa. Some protesters barricaded the Jerusalem offices of a conservative think tank helping to spearhead the judicial changes.
“Israel is on the verge of becoming an autocratic country. The current government is trying to destroy our democracy and actually destroy the country,” said Savion Or, a protester in Tel Aviv.
The uproar over Mr Netanyahu’s legal overhaul has plunged Israel into one of its worst domestic crises.
Beyond the protests, which have drawn tens of thousands of Israelis to the streets and recently became violent, opposition has surged from across society, with business leaders and legal officials speaking out against what they say will be the ruinous effects of the plan.
The rift has not spared Israel’s military, which is seeing unprecedented opposition from within its own ranks.
Mr Netanyahu, who took office in late December after a protracted political stalemate, and his allies say the measures aim to rein in a court that has overstepped its authority. Critics say the overhaul will upset the delicate system of checks and balances and slide Israel toward authoritarianism.
Critics also say Mr Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, is driven by personal grievances and that he could find an escape route from the charges through the overhaul.
Mr Netanyahu denies wrongdoing and says the legal changes have nothing to do with his trial.
Demonstrations were underway across the country as Mr Netanyahu and his allies have pledged to press ahead with a series of Bills that would strip the Supreme Court of its ability to review legislation and give coalition politicians control over judicial appointments.
An attempt by Israel’s ceremonial president to defuse the crisis through an alternative legal reform has so far been unsuccessful.
The protesters’ main objective on Thursday was to complicate Mr Netanyahu’s journey to the airport ahead of a state visit to Rome.
Police, handing out traffic fines as protesters held signs reading, “dictator: don’t come back!” said they would clear the demonstrators by force if they did not move. There were no immediate reports of serious violence.
Mr Netanyahu, who was meeting Mr Austin before his departure, arrived to the airport in a police helicopter, circumventing the protesters, Israeli media reported.
Mr Netanyahu’s office declined to comment.
Regular flights were not interrupted, an airport spokeswoman said, although some travellers said they had to leave their cars behind the protesters’ convoy and reach the terminal on foot.
Mr Netanyahu told the Italian daily La Repubblica in an interview before his trip that the protests illustrated a vibrant democracy. But speaking to reporters before take-off, he suggested the protesters were looking to oust him.
“The goal here is to topple a government that was elected democratically,” Mr Netanyahu said. “We won’t let anyone disrupt Israeli democracy.”
The police, overseen by ultranationalist national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, have pledged to prevent the disturbances and said they had already made arrests.
Officers on horseback were stationed in central Tel Aviv, where protesters were marching, and a water cannon truck was parked nearby.
Red billboards festooned the city’s main motorway, reading: “Resistance to dictatorship is mandatory.”
Police were dragging away protesters who had descended on the motorway.
Critics say Mr Ben-Gvir, a key ally in Mr Netanyahu’s coalition government who has dubbed the protesters “anarchists”, is trying to politicise the police.
Later on Thursday, Mr Ben-Gvir removed Tel Aviv’s police chief over what he felt was a weak response to the protests, according to Israeli media. Police said Avichai Eshed was being reassigned.
Eshed declined to discuss the matter while speaking to reporters at the scene of a shooting attack late on Thursday, when a Palestinian gunman opened fire on a crowded street in central Tel Aviv, wounding three people before he was shot and killed.
The shooting came hours after an Israeli military raid killed three Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank, the latest violence in a year-long wave of Israel-Palestinian fighting that shows no signs of slowing.
Thursday’s demonstration in Tel Aviv, the country’s business centre and its liberal heartland, was not nearly as large as the one last week, when police cracked down on what had otherwise been peaceful protests, lobbing stun grenades and scuffling with demonstrators.
Those protests ended with Mr Netanyahu’s wife Sara being extracted from a ritzy Tel Aviv hair salon where demonstrators had gathered after catching wind of her presence.
Mr Netanyahu and his wife have gained notoriety for enjoying lavish lifestyles and living off the largesse of taxpayers and wealthy supporters. Some media pundits questioned why Mr Netanyahu was flying to Italy for three days at a time of deep national crisis, suggesting the couple were actually travelling to celebrate their wedding anniversary.
His schedule includes a meeting with Italy’s prime minister on Friday but he does not return until Saturday night.
Thursday’s visit by Mr Austin, who is on a Middle East tour, was also being affected by the protests.
An Israeli official said Mr Austin’s meetings were moved to a factory near the airport due to the disruptions.
The protest movement has focused on central Tel Aviv, near the defece ministry. The Israeli official spoke on condition of anonymity under regulations.
Earlier on Thursday, protesting military reservist barricaded the Jerusalem offices of the Kohelet Policy Forum, a conservative think tank that has helped craft the overhaul, with barbed wire and sandbags, and hung a banner outside reading: “Kohelet is tearing Israel apart.”
Several dozen people, including two former navy chiefs, gathered in the waters off Haifa in kayaks, sailboats and on stand-up paddle boards in a bid to block the city’s shipping lane.
