The Judicial reform in Israel and the universities

 This story begins in January 2023, after the establishment of the new government led by Netanyahu and some "far right" folks. The government proposed a series of changes that will affect the judicial system and therefore the balance of powers withing the state. The proposal comes especially from Yariv Levin (Minister of Justice) and Simcha Rothman (Chair of the knesset's constitution, law and justice committee.

According to Wikipedia, the idea is to limit the Supreme Court's power  when exercising judicial review, and to appoint judges suggested by the government. 

If adopted, the reform would grant the Knesset the power to override Supreme Court rulings that deem legislation passed by the Knesset as unconstitutional, by reintroducing the legislation and approving it with a majority of Knesset members. The reform would additionally diminish the ability of courts to conduct judicial review of the Basic Laws and change the makeup of the Judicial Selection Committee, so that control over the appointment of judges is effectively given to the government.

The coalition is also advancing a number of other bills concerning Israel's judicial system and the balance of powers, including reforms to widen the authority of the Rabbinical Court, allowing them to act as arbitrators in civil matters using religious law, if both parties consent;^[8] bills limiting the ability to call for a no-confidence vote and other methods for dissolving a sitting Knesset; bills prohibiting criminal proceedings against sitting Prime Ministers; and bills permitting key public service positions to be positions of trust appointed by politicians rather than professional appointments.^[9]

From this moment, an abundant part of Israeli society took part in constant protests all over the country (especially on Saturday evening, after the end of the Shabbat).

Since then, many companies, associations, business, institutions and public actors started supporting the protests held by private citizenship, with a series of initiatives, from the firm boycott to the dissolution of some of the companies, which left the country.

In particular, a week before Passover the situation became extremely tense, when rectors from various universities decided to suspend the research universities, or when the management of Ben Gurion Airport decided to shut down for a day all of the flights.

In our University, on Sunday 3/26/2023, the rector Prof. Ariel Porat took the decision to halt the study and the research for a day and the Segel (TRFO) fought with passion for a few days in order to prepare an action plan to protest against the situation.

Nevertheless, the situation is intricated, as TRFO Segel reports in one of its emails(16.03.23):

 At stake are concrete threats to organized labor that the passage of the legal program may enable. In this respect, the participants of the assembly argued, the academy and the faculty organizations within it have a role in taking a clear position, which opposes the current course of the legislation and supports the participation of faculty members and students alike in initiated protest actions within the university and outside of it.

Along with this, the participants expressed their concern that from a legal point of view (due to the organization's agreements with the management), declaring a collective strike on behalf of the organization in response to what is happening may lead to a counter-reaction by the university, and a deduction of wages for the strikers.

In order to have a more complete picture of the situation, HERE there is a document with different extracts that we collected across the Internet and during the meetings in person with the TRFO Segel.