According to a survey more than a quarter of Israelis in the
occupied Palestinian territories are considering returning to their countries
of origin. The survey comes as credit rating agencies reported that the mounting
domestic uncertainty will reduce Israel's economic growth this year.
The Times of Israel has cited a poll conducted by the regime's
channel 13 as saying 28% of respondents were weighing a move abroad while an
additional 8% were unsure.
“The survey reflected the impact of the coalition passing
the law, despite sustained mass protests, vehement opposition from top
judicial, security, economic and public figures, and thousands of Israeli
military reservists vowing to quit service,” the newspaper reported.
Highlighting the strong opposition against Netanyahu's
cabinet and signs of protests to continue, only 33% respondents said they believe
the Israeli prime minister's claim that he wants to compromise on the rest of
the judicial overhaul law.
Among
other aspects that the poll found was that 54% of Israelis fear that the
judicial overhaul will harm the security of the occupation regime.
Another
56% said that they were worried about a civil war erupting between opponents
and supporters of Netanyahu's cabinet judicial reforms.
The newspaper, also citing the same poll, indicated that
“Gantz’s National Unity party would win 30 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, the
most of any party, if elections were held today, surpassing Likud, which ranked
next with 25 seats.”
Netanyahu - who is facing corruption charges - has resisted
pressure from the occupation's staunchest allies, including the United States,
which is looking with concern at the crisis unfolding in the occupied
Palestinian territories, to drop his judicial overhaul measures.
The plan has also seen the biggest polarization among
Israeli settlers in the regime's history with more than seven months of mass
protests that saw violent clashes between the Israeli police and settlers after
Netanyahu passed the bill on July 24.
It comes as protests against the bill saw a forum of around
150 of the regime's largest companies holding a strike on Monday. Two of the
largest Israeli malls also closed the stores in their shopping centers.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog and the head of the
occupation’s largest labor union failed to mediate a compromise between the
coalition and opposition ahead of the vote in a bid to ease the crisis.
After news emerged that the compromise talks had collapsed
the early gains for the Israeli currency were and sent the shekel weaker, with
losses deepening further after the vote.
In a sign that the situation could get worse, the head of
Israel's Histadrut labor federation has declared that he will be consulting
with union officials about declaring a general strike.
"From this moment on, any unilateral progress in the
reform will have serious consequences ... Either things will progress with
broad agreement, or they will not progress at all," he said.
That has all sent Israeli financial markets tumbling with
economists predicting there could also be an effect on inflation and interest
rates.
The shekel has weakened by around ten percent versus the
dollar since late January, when the cabinet unveiled its controversial judicial
overhaul plan, which harmed foreign inflows.
A report on Thursday by the S&P Global Ratings said the
controversy over Netanyahu’s plans to limit the powers of the judiciary is
increasing domestic political uncertainty and will lead to lower economic
growth for the entity this year.
"If government and opposition do not achieve an
agreement on the topic, this could further exacerbate domestic political
confrontation and weigh on medium-term economic growth," S&P
said.
With a deep divide in Israeli society and strained loyalties
by thousands of army reservists and foreign investors have been left frightened.
Political watchdog groups have appealed to the Supreme Court
to overturn a new law passed by parliament in the first of the changes to trim
Supreme Court powers, paving the way to a showdown among branches of government
when it hears the arguments in September.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a strong
supporter of the judicial changes, pinned the blame on the Israeli protesters
and not the cabinet for the warning by the rating agencies.
"S&P, like Moody's ... does not warn of damage to
the economy due to the legal reform, but because of the protest that
creates instability," Smotrich said in a statement.
S&P said that its ratings for the regime have in the
past been consistently constrained by domestic and regional political and
security risks.
Israel, it added, has a history of frequent elections and
changes in cabinet composition, which makes future policy direction harder to
predict.
The calls by Israeli settlers and unions for further
strikes, in addition to more than 10,000 reservists joining the protest movement,
have split the regime.
Experts believe the economic outlook is likely to slow
further, adding more fuel for settlers to leave the occupied Palestinian
territories where they fear of the possibility of a civil war amid a rise in
violent protests on one hand and the increasing retaliatory operations
carried out by the resistance on the other. These have added
to the woes of their security concerns.
On Friday, the Israeli Air Force chief warned that enemies
may exploit the internal crisis, saying his forces need to remain vigilant and
prepared.
Tomer Bar said, "It is possible that at a time like
this, they (Israel's enemies) will try to test the frontiers, our
cohesion, and our alertness," he said without elaborating.
As the crisis escalated further after the July 24 vote,
Israeli media have reported that Netanyahu had received at least four letters
from the regime's military intelligence warning of serious security
ramifications and historic weaknesses as a result of his judicial overhaul
measures.