BE’ER SHEVA, Israel — Israel’s controversial new environment minister was shouted off the stage at a climate summit here in the so-called capital of Negev desert as protests grow against the most right-wing government in this country’s 75-year history.
Shortly after the minister took the podium at Ben-Gurion University on Tuesday morning, activists seated in the audience began repeatedly shouting “shame on you” in Hebrew at Idit Silman, the legislator who in January assumed the top environmental post in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new administration.
“You should never dirty the name and stain the name of Israel. You should never cast aspersions against your own people and your own state,” Silman said, defiantly speaking through the jeers. “Leave it to our enemies. You can sit down and listen because in a democracy, people listen.”
The event took place one day after roughly 100,000 demonstrators descended on the national capital in Jerusalem to protest the new administrator’s plan to give the Knesset power to override the judiciary, a sea change that critics say would strip the courts of vital independence.
Supporters of the proposal say the court system empowers judges who are more liberal than voters and are not subject to elections. Opponents — who have ranged from civil society groups to Israeli President Isaac Herzog — generally say the move will allow Netanyahu to fight criminal charges against himself by cherry-picking friendly judges.
Monday night’s march in Jerusalem, one of the largest demonstrations in Israel’s history, capped off weeks of routine Saturday night protests across the nation.
“It really is possible that our air be clean but our hearts and our heads would be polluted by violence,” Silman said. “I’m proud to be part of this government.”
If the judicial reforms become law, banking giant JPMorgan Chase warned that Israel’s credit rating may be downgraded, exacting a painful toll on the country’s export-oriented tech industry. Goldman Sachs said the proposed reforms could harm the value of the shekel.
“It is possible to quarrel and debate and disagree without violence. For God’s sake, please remove the incitement for civil war and bloodshed. Stop with the threats,” Silman said. “Stop with that threatening language of leaving Israel and detrimentally affecting our economy.”
Daniel Chamovitz, the president of Ben-Gurion University, chastised the young demonstrators, accusing them of disrespecting him in his “private home” by refusing to allow the minister to speak. Haaretz journalist Netta Ahituv, a moderator whose newspaper organized the conference, came on the stage to defend the minister.
“For those who have come from abroad, this is a continuation of the demonstrations yesterday against the government; she’s a minister of this government, that’s why,” Ahituv told the audience of hundreds. “It’s just heckling. Whatever your political opinions are, we’d like to hear what the minister has to say.”
Earlier this month, Silman, a lawmaker from Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party, advanced a bill that would require Israel, which depends heavily on fossil fuels, to cut its 2015-level emissions a maximum of 50% by the end of this decade. In December, environmental groups offered rare praise to the new government, whose climate goals appeared more ambitious than the previous, more moderate administration.
But a Haaretz review of Silman’s legislative record found she attended just one of 12 meetings of a subcommittee she formed to investigate the impact of climate change on public health. Sources close to her in the Knesset told the newspaper that “people had to chase after her” for help with environmental legislation: “She purportedly has a commitment to the environment, but it’s just words with no action. … She likes to say that she’s ‘green,’ but it’s not at the top of her priorities.”
One of Silman’s first moves in Netanyahu’s Cabinet was to abolish a tax on single-use plastic utensils opposed by ultra-Orthodox voters, whose traditionally large families adhere to strict religious rules on eating.
Attempting to deliver her speech, Silman accused her predecessors of overzealous enforcement and said she would treat polluting industries as “partners,” not opponents.
“I’m aware of the image of the policeman … who is the regulator who seems to always be chasing the entrepreneurs and the companies,” she said of her agency. “The message I want to convey here is I see you as partners on our part. You are not obstacles.”
The comment reignited the demonstrators.
“If you don’t want to hear what I as a representative of the government, the ministry that protects the climate [has to say], then OK. All right,” Silman said. “If you don’t want to hear another opinion, that’s pretty amazing. It’s tremendous hypocrisy.”
“For those who claim to be fighting for the sake of democracy, this is not democratic and this is not respectable,” she added. “You’re screaming about democracy but you’re not letting me speak.”
Silman gave up shortly afterward, ending her speech and exiting the stage.
On the following panel of speakers, Netta Lipman, the environment ministry’s senior deputy director general of natural resources and climate resilience, said “you missed out” by not letting Silman finish her talk.
But Amit Bracha, chief executive of the environmental nonprofit Adam Teva V’Din, called the administration’s judicial proposal “a coup” that would result in Netanyahu hand-picking judges who would resolve his legal woes and uphold his most contentious policies on Palestinians and minority groups. Revoking the tax on plastic utensils, meanwhile, was tantamount to “transforming Israel into one great garbage heap,” he said.
The problem runs deeper than the Ministry of Environmental Protection, said Eitan Parnass, the chief executive of the Green Energy Association of Israel, who accused officials from the Ministry of Finance of failing to properly account for the cost of carbon dioxide emissions.
“All the other Western economies are doing it, yet we don’t measure that,” he said. “So the rest is just talk and talk and talk and nothing is done.”
Later that morning, over coffee in the university’s lobby, Sharona Shnayder, 22, said she was proud of the activists for forcing Silman off the stage. The Nigerian-born, U.S.-raised immigrant to Israel founded an advocacy group that focuses on reducing waste in a country she said is plagued by plastic pollution. She said the new government was acting primarily to shore up its support among its most fervent base of voters in a bid to stay in power for as long as possible following four years of political instability in Israel.
“It was really brave of them to stand up and refuse to be silent,” Shnayder said. “Honestly, go off.”