"Everything that theoretically, the government should have done was initially organized by the protest movements," Poran told Reuters. The judicial overhaul plans, promoted by Netanyahu's religious-rightist government as an overdue check on the powers of activist judges encroaching on politics, drew hundreds of thousands of protesters who saw them as an existential threat to Israeli democracy. Thousands of military reservists said they would refuse to report for normal duty, creating fears in the military that Israel's security would be compromised. "They said that if Israel will be in some existential threat, under an existential threat, that then they will return and this is exactly what they did." Reporting by Emily Rose and Janis Laizans; Editing by Howard GollerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Persons: Ammar Awad, Guy Poran, Benjamin Netanyahu's, Poran, Netanyahu, Emily Rose, Janis Laizans, Howard Goller Organizations: Volunteers, REUTERS, Hamas, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Gaza, Tel Aviv, Israel, TEL AVIV