Thread by @idobenbaji

If you thought #Netanyahu hit the pause button on his attempt to curtail civil rights and turn the Israeli government into an authoritarian regime, think again. A thread 🧵:

1. When Bibi & justice minister Levin embarked on their journey towards a judicial coup in 2022, they had everything planned out. Members of Bibi's coalition studied how democracy has been curtailed elsewhere (e.g., Hungary) and tailored a plan that would do the same in Israel.

2. They made one miscalculation, though. Their hubris & growing detachment from public opinion in #Israel prevented them from anticipating the levels of anger that their schemes would evoke, eventually leading to the largest, long lasting protest movement in Israel's history.

3. And while the Hamas massacre on #October7 and the war in Gaza forced them to hit the pause button on their most ambitious authoritarian aspirations, it has also given Israel's anti-democratic forces a chance to regroup and rethink their strategy for dealing with mass protests.

4. The result: a new plan to curtail free speech & civil rights *before* carrying out the coup itself (i.e., abolishing the independent judiciary & removing all checks on the executive). This way when they decide to resume they'll be met with minimal resistance in the streets.

5. So under the fog of war, and with the loud encouragement of Bibi's police minister #BenGvir, we've seen police forces up their levels of violence in protests, interrogators question detainees in custody about their political affiliation, and online speech closely monitored.

6. The crackdown on protest rights will reach it's peak this week, as the coalition prepares to grant police officers authority to unilaterally place protesters under house arrest for 15 days and further limit their right of movement for another 45, all without a court order.

7. This bill is being rushed through the Knesset this week, the last week before parliament's spring recess, so that police is granted its new powers before the protest movement regains it's pre-#Oct7 steam. Read opposition member @naamalazimi on this.

https://x.com/naamalazimi/status/1775049154475037061?s=20

8. The world's attention, as well as that of many Israelis, is understandably elsewhere. But if we don't pay close enough attention, what's left of Israel's fragile #democracy might itself be yet another casualty of the ongoing #Gaza war. #DemocracyInDanger

@NTarnopolsky

9. And #BREAKING_NEWS just coming in: media reporting that the TLV police, whose commander is a Ben-Gvir appointee, is considering launching a Russia-style investigation of opposition Knesset member @naamalazimi, who is the main advocate for protesters' rights in parliament.