In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has removed a top minister, following an order last week by the Supreme Court, which ruled the far-right Aryeh Deri was unfit for office due to his criminal convictions.  

Tel Aviv, January 23 (RHC)-- In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has removed a top minister, following an order last week by the Supreme Court, which ruled the far-right Aryeh Deri was unfit for office due to his criminal convictions.  

Netanyahu’s compliance with the Supreme Court order comes even as his extremist new coalition seeks to disempower the judiciary. 

An estimated 100,000 people took to the streets of Tel Aviv over the weekend to protest the new government. 

Avi Chimi, chair of the Israeli Bar Association, told reporters: "We are shouting against a coup d’état.  I call upon the citizens of the nation and upon the nation.  They want to turn us into a dictatorship.  They want to destroy the democracy.  They want to destroy the judicial authority.  There is no democratic country without a judicial authority.”