World
Afghan refugees in Pakistan protest delay in US resettlement
Hundreds of Afghan refugees facing extreme delays in the approval of U.S. visas protested in Pakistan’s capital on Sunday, as an American program to help relocate at-risk Afghans fleeing Taliban rule stalls.
The U.S. government’s Priority 1 and Priority 2, known as P1 and P2 refugee programs were meant to fast track visas for at-risk Afghans including journalists and rights activists after the Taliban takeover in their homeland. Those eligible must have worked for the U.S. government, a U.S.-based media organization or non-governmental organization in Afghanistan, and must be referred by the U.S.-based employer.
Read more: Bombing in crowded bazaar in southwestern Pakistan kills 5
Applicants have been waiting in Pakistan for more than one and a half years for U.S. officials to process their visa applications. The delay in approving visas and resettlement has left Afghan applicants in a highly vulnerable position as they contend with economic hardship and lack of access to health, education and other services in Pakistan.
Mohammad Baqir Ahmadi, who said he’d helped to organize the protest outside of Pakistan’s National Press Club in Islamabad, said many of the Afghans present were facing problems in extending visas to wait out the application process in Pakistan.
Protesters said that applicants had yet to receive the preliminary interview necessary to begin the visa application process.
“We, the holders of P1/P2 cases, your allies, and colleagues, played significant role toward expansion of democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression. We are currently asking for your support and companionship in the bad days of life,” read one banner held by Afghan demonstrators.
Read more: Trade resumes as Pakistan, Afghanistan reopen Torkham border
Hesamuddin, an Afghan who is waiting on the processing of his P2 case, said authorities should evacuate Afghan P1 and P2 applicants to a country where the necessary resettlement support centers (RSC) are open and able to conduct interviews. “They must evacuate us to another country where RSCs are functioning and can process there,” he said.
Under U.S. rules, applicants must first relocate to a third country for their cases to be processed, where it initially can take up to 14 to 18 months and cases are processed through the resettlement support centers.
The Taliban retook power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces withdrew. Many Afghans sought to leave in the immediate aftermath of the Taliban takeover.
But they have progressively imposed more restrictions, particularly on women. They have banned women and girls from schooling beyond the sixth grade, barred them from most jobs and demanded they cover their faces when outside.
Israeli settlers rampage after Palestinian gunman kills 2
Scores of Israeli settlers went on a violent rampage in the northern West Bank late Sunday, setting dozens of cars and homes on fire after two settlers were killed by a Palestinian gunman. Palestinian medics said one man was killed and four others were badly wounded in what appeared to be the worst outburst of settler violence in decades.
The deadly shooting, followed by the late-night rampage, immediately raised doubts about Jordan’s declaration that Israeli and Palestinian officials had pledged to calm a year-long wave of violence.
Palestinian media said some 30 homes and cars were torched. Photos and video on social media showed large fires burning throughout the town of Hawara — scene of the deadly shooting earlier in the day — and lighting up the sky.
In one video, a crowd of Jewish settlers stood in prayer as they stared at a building in flames. And earlier, a prominent Israeli Cabinet minister and settler leader had called for Israel to strike “without mercy.”
Late Sunday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said a 37-year-old man was shot and killed by Israeli fire. The Palestinian Red Crescent medical service said two other people were shot and wounded, a third person was stabbed and a fourth was beaten with an iron bar. Some 95 others were being treated for tear gas inhalation.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned what he called “the terrorist acts carried out by settlers under the protection of the occupation forces tonight.”
“We hold the Israeli government fully responsible,” he added.
The European Union said it was “alarmed by today’s violence” in Huwara, and said “authorities on all sides must intervene now to stop this endless cycle of violence.” The U.K.’s ambassador to Israel, Neil Wigan, said that “Israel should tackle settler violence, with those responsible brought to justice.”
As videos of the violence appeared on evening news shows, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealed for calm and urged against vigilante violence. “I ask that when blood is boiling and the spirit is hot, don’t take the law into your hands,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.
The Israeli military said its chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzl Halevi, rushed to scene. It said troops were being reinforced in the area as they worked to restore order and search for the shooter.
Ghassan Douglas, a Palestinian official who monitors Israeli settlements in the Nablus region. said that settlers burned at least six houses and dozens of cars in Hawara, and reported attacks on other neighboring Palestinian villages. He estimated around 400 Jewish settlers took part in the attack.
“I never seen such an attack,” he said.
The rampage occurred shortly after the Jordanian government, which hosted Sunday’s talks at the Red Sea resort of Aqaba, said the sides had agreed to take steps to de-escalate tensions and would meet again next month ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
“They reaffirmed the necessity of committing to de-escalation on the ground and to prevent further violence,” the Jordanian Foreign Ministry announced.
After nearly a year of fighting that has killed over 200 Palestinians and more than 40 Israelis in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, the Jordanian announcement marked a small sign of progress. But the situation on the ground immediately cast those commitments into doubt.
The Palestinians claim the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip – areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war – for a future state. Some 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The international community overwhelmingly considers the settlements as illegal and obstacles to peace.
The West Bank is home to a number of hard-line settlements whose residents frequently vandalize Palestinians land and property. But rarely is the violence so widespread.
Prominent members of Israel’s far-right government called for tough action against the Palestinians.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler leader who lives in the area and has been put in charge of much of Israel’s West Bank policy, called for “striking the cities of terror and its instigators without mercy, with tanks and helicopters.”
Using a phrase that calls for a more heavy-handed response, he said Israel should act “in a way that conveys that the master of the house has gone crazy.”
Late Sunday, however, Smotrich appealed to his fellow settlers to let the army and government do their jobs. “It is forbidden to take the law into your hands and create dangerous anarchy that could spin out of control and cost lives,” he said.
Earlier, in Israeli ministerial committee gave initial approval to a bill that would impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted in deadly attacks. The measure was sent to lawmakers for further debate.
There were also differing interpretations of what exactly was agreed to in Aqaba between the Palestinians and Israelis.
Jordan’s Foreign Ministry said the representatives agreed to work toward a “just and lasting peace” and had committed to preserving the status quo at Jerusalem’s contested holy site.
Tensions at the site revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif have often spilled over into violence, and two years ago sparked an 11-day war between Israel and the Hamas militant group during Ramadan.
Officials with Israel’s government, the most right-wing in Israeli history, played down Sunday’s meeting.
A senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity under government guidelines, said only that the sides in Jordan agreed to set up a committee to work at renewing security ties with the Palestinians. The Palestinians cut off ties last month after a deadly Israeli military raid in the West Bank.
Netanyahu’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, who led the Israeli delegation said there were “no changes” in Israeli policies and that plans to build thousands of new settlement homes approved last week would not be affected.
He said “there is no settlement freeze” and “there is no restriction on army activity.”
The Jordanian announcement had said Israel pledged not to legalize any more outposts for six months or to approve any new construction in existing settlements for four months.
The Palestinians, meanwhile, said they had presented a long list of grievances, including an end to Israeli settlement construction on occupied lands and a halt to Israeli military raids on Palestinian towns.
Sunday’s shooting in Hawara came days after an Israeli military raid killed 10 Palestinians in the nearby city of Nablus. The shooting occurred on a major highway that serves both Palestinians and Israeli settlers. The two men who were killed were identified as brothers, ages 21 and 19, from the Jewish settlement of Har Bracha.
Hanegbi was joined by the head of Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security agency who attended the talks in neighboring Jordan. The head of the Palestinian intelligence services as well as advisers to President Mahmoud Abbas also joined.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who has close ties with the Palestinians, led the discussions, while Egypt, another mediator, and the United States also participated.
In Washington, the U.S. national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, welcomed the meeting. “We recognize that this meeting was a starting point,” he said, adding that implementation will be critical.”
It was a rare high-level meeting between the sides, illustrating the severity of the crisis and the concerns of increased violence as Ramadan approaches in late March.
In Gaza, Hamas, an Islamic militant group that seeks Israel’s destruction, criticized Sunday’s meeting and called the shooting a “natural reaction” to Israeli incursions in the West Bank.
Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. The Hamas militant group subsequently took control of the territory, and Israel and Egypt maintain a blockade over the territory.
North Korea holds rare meeting on farming amid food shortage
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un opened a major political conference dedicated to agricultural improvement, state media reported Monday, amid outside assessments that the country’s chronic food insecurity is getting worse.
Recent unconfirmed reports have said an unknown number of North Koreans have died of hunger. But observers have seen no indication of mass deaths or famine in North Korea, though its food shortage has likely deepened due to pandemic-related curbs, persistent international sanctions and its own mismanagements.
During a high-level meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party that began Sunday, senior party officials reviewed last year’s work under state goals to accomplish “rural revolution in the new era,” the official Korean Central News Agency reported.
The report said that the meeting of the party’s Central Committee will determine “immediate, important” tasks on agricultural issues and “urgent tasks arising at the present stage of the national economic development.”
KNCA didn’t say whether Kim spoke during the meeting or how long it would last. Senior officials such as Cabinet Premier Kim Tok Hun and Jo Yong Won, one of Kim’s closest aides who handles the Central Committee’s organizational affairs, were also attending.
The meeting is the party’s first plenary session convened only to discuss agriculture. Monday’s report didn’t elaborate on its agenda, but the party’s powerful Politburo said earlier this month that a “a turning point is needed to dynamically promote radical change in agricultural development.”
Most analysts North Korea’s food situation today is nowhere near the extremes of the 1990s, when hundreds of thousands of people died in a famine. However, some experts say its food insecurity is likely at its worst since Kim took power in 2011, after COVID-19 restrictions further shocked an economy battered by decades of mismanagement and crippling U.S.-led sanctions imposed over Kim’s nuclear program.
In early 2020, North Korea tried to shield its population from the coronavirus by imposing stringent border controls that choked off trade with China, its main ally and economic lifeline. Russia’s war on Ukraine possibly worsened the situation by driving up global prices of food, energy and fertilizer, on which North Korea’s agricultural production is heavily dependent.
After spending more than two years in a strict pandemic lockdown, North Korea last year reopened freight train traffic with China and Russia. More than 90% of North Korea’s official external trade goes through its border with China.
Last year, North Korea’s grain production was estimated at 4.5 million tons, a 3.8% drop from 2020, according to South Korean government assessments. The North was estimated to have produced between 4.4 million tons to 4.8 million tons of grain annually from 2012-2021, according to previous South Korean data.
North Korea needs about 5.5 million tons of grain to feed its 25 million people annually, so it’s short about 1 million tons this year. In past years, half of such a gap was usually met by unofficial grain purchases from China, with the rest remaining as unresolved shortfall, according to Kwon Tae-jin, a senior economist at the private GS&J Institute in South Korea.
Kwon says trade curbs due to the pandemic have likely hindered unofficial rice purchases from China. Efforts by North Korean authorities to tighten controls and restrict market activities have also worsened the situation, he said.
It’s unclear whether North Korea will take any action to quickly address its food problems. Some experts say North Korea will use this week’s plenary meeting to boost public support of Kim during his confrontations with the United States and its allies over his nuclear ambitions.
Despite limited resources, Kim has been aggressively pushing to expand his nuclear weapons and missile programs to pressure Washington into accepting the idea of the North as a nuclear power and lift international sanctions on it. After a record year of weapons testing activities in 2022, North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile and other weapons in displays this month.
Sri Lanka police fire tear gas at election protest; 15 hurt
Police in Sri Lanka on Sunday fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters angry over a decision to postpone local elections after the government said it cannot finance them because of the country's crippling economic crisis.
About 15 people were treated for minor injuries, according to Colombo National Hospital.
Thousands of supporters of the opposition National People's Power party tried to march toward the main business district in capital Colombo, ignoring police warnings after a court order barred them from entering the area, which includes the president's residence, office and several key government buildings.
The order had been obtained in the backdrop of last July's massive protests, when thousands of people stormed the presidential office and residence and occupied them for days. The crisis forced then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and resign.
The turmoil was caused by severe shortages of some foods, fuel, cooking gas and medicine, after Sri Lanka went bankrupt because it could not repay its foreign debt. The new president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, negotiated a rescue package with the International Monetary Fund for $2.9 billion over four years, but it can be finalized only if Sri Lanka’s creditors give assurances on debt restructuring.
Sri Lanka’s total foreign debt exceeds $ 51 billion, of which it must repay $28 billion by 2027. India and several other creditor countries have so far given assurances that meet the IMF standards, but the deal hinges on whether China would agree to debt restructuring at the same level.
The Finance Ministry under Wickremesinghe said it can't allocate sufficient funds for the March 9 elections for town and village councils, even though political parties had submitted nominations.
The decision forced the Election Commission to indefinitely postpone the elections.
Despite signs of progress in reducing shortages and ending daily power cuts after nearly a year, Wickremesinghe is immensely unpopular. Many people say he lacks the mandate because he was elected by lawmakers backed by Rajapaksa supporters. They accuse Wickremesinghe of protecting members of the Rajapaksa family from corruption allegations in return for backing him in Parliament.
The National People’s Power party, which organized Sunday's rally, has only three lawmakers in Sri Lanka's 225-member Parliament but it enjoys a wave of public support after the economic crisis eroded the popularity of traditional political parties that have ruled Sri Lanka since independence.
Bombing in crowded bazaar in southwestern Pakistan kills 5
A bombing at a crowded bazaar in southwestern Pakistan on Sunday killed at least five people and wounded 16, authorities said amid a surge in violence in this South Asian nation.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in Barkhan, about 600 kilometers (360 miles) northeast of Quetta, the provincial capital.
Sajjad Afzal, the local police chief, said the bomb was apparently rigged to a motorcycle and was detonated by remote control. Apart from inflicting casualties, the bombing also left several shops at the market badly damaged. Rescuers took the wounded to hospital, Afzal said.
Read more: Trade resumes as Pakistan, Afghanistan reopen Torkham border
Baluchistan has long struggled with a low-level insurgency by the Baluchistan Liberation Army and other small separatist groups demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad.
Authorities claim to have quelled the insurgency but violence has persisted. The restive province has seen attacks by both the Pakistani Taliban and the Islamic State group.
Read more: 13 people killed as bus hits van on Pakistan motorway
Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo, the chief minister of Baluchistan, condemned the bombing, describing it as a terrorist attack.
“Terrorists are trying to create uncertainty through such attacks to achieve their nefarious goals, but we will not allow these anti-state elements to succeed, “ he said without specifically blaming anyone.
Iran’s currency hits new low amid anti-government protests
Iran’s currency fell to a record low against the dollar on Sunday, with nationwide anti-government protests now in their fifth month. A breakdown in negotiations to restore Tehran’s nuclear deal has also hurt the value of the rial.
Traders in Tehran were exchanging the rial at around 600,000 to the dollar on Sunday, after the currency plunged further from 500,000 rials for $1 on Wednesday.
Read more: Iran International moves shows to Washington, citing threats
Iran’s currency was trading at 32,000 rials to the dollar at the time of the 2015 nuclear accord that lifted international sanctions on Tehran in exchange for tight controls on Iran’s nuclear program. It was trading at 100 rials to the dollar in 1979 during the Islamic Revolution, the West-back monarchy of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Iran’s statistics center said last week that the inflation rate reached 53.4 in January. It was 41.4 in January 2021, two years ago.
Read more: Protests hit multiple Iran cities for first time in weeks
Iran has been gripped by nationwide protests since September. Demonstrations broke out following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the country’s morality police. She was detained by the force for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women.
Russia, Iran sending top envoys to UN’s human rights council
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will help kick off the latest and longest-ever session of the U.N.’s top human rights body on Monday, with Iran’s foreign minister, a senior Russian envoy, and the top diplomats of France and Germany among scores of leaders set to take part.
The more than five-week session of the Human Rights Council opens as the world grapples with rights concerns including Russia’s war in Ukraine, repression of dissent in Russia and Belarus, new violence between Palestinians and Israelis, and efforts to solidify a peace deal in Ethiopia that ended two years of conflict between the national government and rebels in the Tigray region.
The council, made up of 47 members countries, takes up an extensive array of human rights issues — including discrimination, the freedom of religion, right to housing or the deleterious impact of economic sanctions targeting governments on regular people — as well as country “situations” like those in Afghanistan, Syria, Myanmar, Nicaragua and South Sudan. It usually meets three times a year.
Proponents say the Geneva-based rights body has grown in importance as a diplomatic venue because the U.N. Security Council in New York has been increasingly divided in recent years due to a major rift between affiliations among its five permanent members: China and Russia on one side, Britain, France and the United States on the other.
On Monday, among the speakers after Guterres and the presidents of Congo, Montenegro and Colombia, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian will come up between Germany’s Annalena Baerbock and France’s Catherine Colonna. China’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, is set to make a statement by video.
Amirabdollahian’s visit comes in the wake of vociferous and continued protests that erupted in Iran after the death in September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini following her arrest by the country’s morality police.
Moscow is set to be represented at the highest level since Russia suspended its council membership last year — largely because the U.N. General Assembly was on the cusp of stripping it. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, known more for his expertise on defense matters, is set to attend on Thursday. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to speak by video message the same day.
A year ago, scores of diplomats walked out of the council chamber as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov appeared by video, to express their opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine days earlier. He had originally been set to attend in person but many Western countries closed their airspace to flights from Russia after the invasion.
In the session, the United States is likely to try to keep pressure on China over its record on issues over a crackdown on pro-democracy activists and others in Hong Kong, long-running concerns about Tibet, and others about the western region of Xinjiang — on which former U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet issued a scathing report last fall just minutes before she left office.
“We will continue to shine a spotlight on documented abuses of Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang by the PRC,” said the U.S. ambassador to the council, Michèle Taylor. “We are not going to just walk away from that ... I don’t have an answer right now for exactly what’s planned, but I can tell you that we’re engaged in robust conversations about what that might look like.”
Western diplomats say they are looking to see what tone the new U.N. human rights chief, Volker Türk, takes on the issue. He is set to speak right after Guterres.
Among other items on the agenda will be the possible renewal of the term of a team of experts, known as a Commission of Inquiry, on the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Ethiopia’s effort to prematurely end the mandate of a council-designated team of investigators who have been looking into rights issues related to the conflict with Tigray rebels.
Migrant boat breaks up off Italian coast, killing nearly 60
A wooden boat crowded with migrants smashed into rocky reefs and broke apart before dawn Sunday off the Italian coast, authorities said. Rescuers recovered nearly 60 bodies, and dozens more people were missing in the rough waters.
Officials feared the death toll could top 100 since some survivors indicated the boat had as many as 200 passengers when it set out from Turkey, United Nations refugee and migration agencies said.
At least 80 people were found alive, including some who reached the shore after the shipwreck just off Calabria’s coastline along the Ionian Sea, the Italian Coast Guard said. One of the agency’s motorboats rescued two men suffering from hypothermia and recovered the body of a boy.
As sundown approached, firefighters said 59 bodies had been found.
One man was taken into custody for questioning after fellow survivors indicated he was a trafficker, state TV said.The boat collided with the reefs in rough, wind-whipped seas. Three big chunks of the vessel ended up on the beach near the town of Steccato di Cutro, where splintered pieces of bright blue wood littered the sand like matchsticks.
“All of the survivors are adults,″ Red Cross volunteer Ignazio Mangione said. ”Unfortunately, all the children are among the missing or were found dead on the beach.” A baby was reported among the dead.
German leader seeks Indian support for Russia’s isolation
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz sought assurances Saturday from India that it would support, or at least not block, Western efforts to isolate Russia for waging a devastating war against Ukraine.
Following his talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Scholz stressed that developing countries were being negatively impacted by energy and food shortages resulting from the war and hopes that India will help secure critical supplies to Asia, Africa and the Americas.
Modi maintained his cautious approach and said India wanted the conflict to be ended through dialogue and diplomacy. “India is ready to make its contribution to any peace initiative,” he added.
He has refrained from any overt criticism of Russia as Moscow is a major supplier of arms, oil and India’s other economic needs.
Scholz said that Russia’s war against Ukraine “violated the fundamental principle to what we all agree of not changing borders through the use of violence.”
While the two leaders took no questions from the media after their meeting, Scholz later told German reporters that he and Modi had discussed the war in Ukraine “very extensively and very intensly,” but declined to elaborate, citing the confidential nature of the talks.
Scholz, who arrived in the Indian capital on Saturday, also discussed with Modi ways to boost economic cooperation, including through a free trade agreement between the European Union and India. Scholz made clear he favors a free trade deal and said he “personally will make sure that (the talks) do not drag on.”
The trip is Scholz’s first official visit to India, though it is his fourth meeting with Modi since taking office in 2021, underlining Germany’s interest in reaching out to Delhi.
“There is huge potential for intensified cooperation in sectors such as renewables, hydrogen, mobility, pharma and digital economy” with India, Scholz said in an interview published by The Times of India newspaper on Saturday.
After a videoconference with fellow leaders from the Group of Seven industrial powers on Friday, Scholz said before leaving Berlin that “internationally, we are endeavoring to make clear that Russia stands alone in the world with its aggression against Ukraine.”
Philipp Ackermann, the German ambassador to India, said he understands why India is buying large quantities of oil from Russia.
“That’s something that the Indian government decides and as you get it at a very, very low price, you know I cannot blame the Indian government for buying it,” New Delhi Television cited Ackermann as saying.
Germany has been pushing to diversify its economic relations as it and other European countries try to avoid being dependent on China, a German official said on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to reporters.
Modi said the business delegation accompanying Scholz was firming up agreements with India in digital technology, the telecommunication sector and diversification of supply chains.
Scholz reiterated that Germany welcomes skilled workers from India, especially in information technology and software industries.
“We want to benefit from the Indian talent employed in Germany in the industrial sector,” he said.
Speaking to reporters later Saturday, Scholz said Germany could help India achieve its ambitious goals when it comes to expanding renewable power generation.
India is set to receive $10.5 billion in aid by 2030 to boost the use of clean energy under agreements the two sides signed in May last year.
Scholz’s delegation included several German business leaders, including the head of ThyssenKrupp, which is trying to sell further submarines to India.
Asked whether such a deal with India, which has been a major buyer of arms from Russia, could be struck, Scholz said he had “the impression that the quality of German technology enjoys great recognition and appreciate here.”
The two-day visit will also take Scholz to India’s information technology hub Bengaluru on Sunday.
Mass protests in Israel as controversial overhauls advanced
Tens of thousands of Israelis on Saturday protested their far-right government’s plans to overhaul the legal system, three days after parliament advanced a bill that would enable lawmakers to overturn a Supreme Court decision with a simple majority.
The “Supreme Court override” bill’s approval in a preliminary vote in the Knesset was the latest step by Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition toward realizing the judicial overhaul that is steaming ahead despite calls for dialogue and consensus from American Jews and Israel’s president, and the weekly mass protests.
Also Read: Israel's Netanyahu advances judicial changes despite uproar
In addition to weakening the country's highest court, the protesters say the proposed changes threaten Israel's democratic values and concentrate power with the ruling coalition in parliament. Netanyahu and his ruling coalition believe the court has had unchecked power for years.
For eight weeks, the weekly protests have gained momentum, with large sectors of Israeli society and businesses joining them. On Saturday, the main protest took place in the central city of Tel Aviv along numerous smaller demonstrations across the country.
Also Read: Israel approves over 7,000 settlement homes, groups say
The protesters held Israeli flags, flares, and posters with different messages against the judicial overhauls. “No Constitution, No Democracy," said one placard. Some demonstrators stood behind a banner reading “They Shall Not Pass" and “We Shall Override,” referring to the vote.