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July 22 (UPI) — Amidst tens of thousands of people protesting his government, Benjamin Netanyahu, the controversial far-right leader of Israel, has announced that he will receive a pacemaker early Sunday.
Netanyahu, 73, shared this news through a video message posted on Twitter.
“I want to update you regarding what’s going to happen,” Netanyahu said in the video, as translated by CNN.
“Last week, they provided me with a monitoring device. The device beeped and indicated that I need a pacemaker, which needs to be implanted tonight. I feel great, but I trust my doctors.”
Netanyahu stated his intention to attend the Knesset, the unicameral parliament of Israel, following the procedure, where a vote on his government’s judicial reform plan will take place.
In the previous month, Netanyahu was discharged from the Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, after being admitted for dehydration the day before. The doctors had equipped him with a Holter monitor, a portable electrocardiogram for cardiac monitoring, which triggered an alert on Saturday night.
Late Saturday, tens of thousands of protesters marched into Jerusalem after completing a five-day march from Tel Aviv to voice their opposition to the judiciary reform plans. The demonstrators have been protesting for 29 weeks.
Despite temperatures nearing 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the country with a population of about 9.7 million, the number of protesters had swelled to approximately 20,000 by Saturday night.
Supporters of the bill believe it would enable the government to effectively implement policies backed by voters, while critics view it as an assault on democracy that undermines one of the core checks on governmental power.
