Supreme Court President Esther Hayut denounced on Thursday the new government’s plan to overhaul Israel’s judicial system. Addressing a conference in Haifa, Hayut warned that such a plan would deal a “fatal blow” to the country’s democratic identity. Her unprecedentedly fierce speech reflected the current schism in Israel, pitting the liberal values that guided the founders of the state against the conservative, nationalist forces that have assumed control of the country in recent weeks.

The specter of an internal battle, which emerged in Israeli discourse after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his radical partners won the Nov. 1 elections, appeared imaginary at first, even absurd. But just two months on, these doomsday scenarios are materializing at high speed, gathering steam as they appear headed for a mighty clash between Israel’s judicial and legal system and the political forces intent on crushing it.

This will not be a civil war with tanks and rifles, but rather a campaign waged on social media, accompanied by demonstrations on the streets. The opening salvo of this confrontation is expected to occur on Saturday, when a mass protest is scheduled in Tel Aviv. Organizers hope for participation by tens and even hundreds of thousands in what they regard as nothing short of Israel’s second war of independence, 75 years after the first that culminated in the establishment of the state.

Netanyahu’s campaign against the legal system is not new, but until the last elections, the Israeli center-left camp had managed to protect the court’s independence. In May 2020, during a petition filed against Netanyahu's tenure as prime minister when his corruption trial was getting underway, Hayut told the petitioners, “Even if we do not accept your position, the fortress [of the supreme court] has not fallen.”