Dozens of South Tel Aviv residents, together with activists from the Im Tirtzu movement and other citizens, held an alternative swearing-in ceremony for incoming High Court President Esther Hayut in front of the President's Residence in Jerusalem.
The alternative swearing-in ceremony sought to illustrate the disconnect between High Court rulings and the Israeli public, as south Tel Aviv residents are among the main victims of those rulings.
During the coronation ceremony a red carpet was rolled out, a royal throne was placed and a crown prepared, with the intention of emphasizing who is the true queen of the State of Israel.
Residents of South Tel Aviv, Netanya, Petach Tikva, Nativ Ha'avot, Amona and Ofra evacuees, together with bereaved families and the Im Tirtzu movement called on the incoming president to attend the coronation ceremony and demanded that the High Court's discriminatory policies be stopped.
According to the protesters, the High Court has replaced the Israeli government, and its rulings harm the citizens of Israel.The demonstrators carried signs and shouted: "Esther Hayut will bring back sanity"; "The people demand an Israeli High Court"; "We vow to stand up to High Court tyranny"; and "We vow to liberate our neighborhoods from Eritrean-Sudanese occupation."
Personages attending the alternative coronation included Meirav Hajaj, mother of Cptn. Shir Hajaj who was murdered in the attack at Armon HaNatziv in January this year. Hajaj sent an emotional letter to Justice Hayut yesterday, demanding that the High Court not allowreturn of terrorist's bodies to their families, a demand currently under discussion in the High Court.
Shefi Paz, one of the leaders of south Tel Aviv residents struggle headquarters, said: "Today we came to demonstrate during the swearing-in of the new president of the High Court, to tell her we're imprisoned by the legal piracy of the High Court and the tyranny of the judicial system.
"We came to present her with an alternative vision at a coronation ceremony that says: 'I am Esther Hayut, I swear to be faithful to the people of Israel and to the State of Israel and to place before my eyes the welfare of its citizens over the welfare of its enemies.'"
Paz recalled that "only this week the court released a drugged and violent Eritrean who threw a brick at the head of a 78-year-old passerby because the injured man was 'confused' in the testimony he gave.` Despite the police request the court released the infiltrator back to the streets of south Tel Aviv. How long will our blood be abandoned?"
Other participants at the faux coronation ceremony were members of the Im Tirtzu movement, who called for a change in court policy that discriminates against Israeli citizens.
"We came to remind the incoming president of the High Court that state citizens are not invisible and they also have human rights," said Alon Schwartzer, head of the policy department at the Im Tirtzu movement. "We expect the High Court to serve first and foremost the interests of the citizens of Israel and not of foreign governments that use various de-legitimization organizations day and night to harm the lives of South Tel Aviv residents, bereaved families, and IDF soldiers."
He promised, "We'll continue to demonstrate as long as Israeli citizens don't have justice in their struggle against judicial imperviousness.Justice Hayut has the right to change the horrible reality in which the High Court has become disconnected from the people."