More than 300,000 Israelis who support the government’s planned judicial reforms gathered Thursday evening in Jerusalem for a mass demonstration in favor of those reforms, police confirmed. More than a thousand buses were registered for the event held outside the Knesset. Organizers put the number of participants as high as 600,000 people. Whatever the exact number, the pictures show tremendous numbers of people – quite possibly one of the largest rallies ever held in Israel.
The “March of the Million” was aimed at outgunning the four months-long series of weekly protests by left-wing Israelis across the country who oppose the reforms. There were so many people at the pre-reform protest that cellphone service became unavailable after service from all the cellular providers collapsed for much of the demonstration, at a range of close to a kilometer.
There were major differences between this protest and the anti-government protests. First of all, the average age of the demonstrators was clearly much younger. People showed up with families. And most significantly, most people were smiling and happy and not dressed up in depressing dystopian costumes.
Organizers said NIS 6 million ($1.65 million) was raised for the protest; NIS 1 million of that through crowdfunding and the rest through large donors and coalition parties. The Religious Zionism Party contributed NIS 1.2 million, and the Likud Party gave NIS 600 thousand.
Likud Justice Minister Yariv Levin, considered the architect of the judicial overhaul, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (head of the Religious Zionism party), Likud Minister Dudi Amsalem, Otzma Yehudit chair and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and Likud Energy and Infrastructure Minister Israel Katz were joined by Religious Zionism Knesset member Simcha Rothman in speaking at the rally, along with acclaimed right-wing columnist Caroline Glick.
Likud leader and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not attend the rally; nevertheless, he expressed his appreciation for those who came out to support the government’s planned judicial reforms.
I thank the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who came to Jerusalem tonight to support our government. Your passion and patriotism moves me deeply. pic.twitter.com/F0aC0ETAFd
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) April 27, 2023
“I am deeply moved by the tremendous support of the national camp that came to Jerusalem this evening in droves,” Netanyahu wrote in a Hebrew-language tweet. “All of us represent the 64 mandates that brought victory, and are first-class citizens! You have warmed my heart greatly and I thank each and every one of you.”
Likud Knesset member Avichay Buaron, a religious resident of Amichai, and settlement activist Berelah Krombie, a strategic communications adviser and Chabad Hasid, together head the new Tekuma 23 organization that was heavily involved in organizing the rally and other activities to support the judicial reforms.
Buaron and Krombie created Tekuma 23 in response to the left-wing protests against the overhaul as a vehicle to organize support for the reforms.
Matan Peleg, CEO of the pro-Zionist NGO Im Tirtzu that organized hundreds of buses to Thursday’s rally, called the March of the Million a “full-throated endorsement of democracy.
“After five rounds of elections, the National Camp finally and definitively won an election that represents a clear mandate. Unfortunately, instead of being allowed 100 days for the new government to prove itself, they were given 100 days of unrelenting opposition, some of which was anarchy,” Peleg said.
“The reality is that the real victim of these endless attacks has been democracy itself, as well as Zionism. That is why we are calling on everyone to come to the Knesset today! Defend Democracy! Defend Zionism! Defend the sovereign State of Israel!”
