A huge demonstration took place in the streets of Tel Aviv over the weekend. About 160,000 protesters expressed their dissatisfaction with the government, which brought significant uncertainty for the plight of Israel’s political landscape. Central to his fight is Benjamin Netanyahu, who was successfully re-elected as a prime minister of Israel, leading to several changes to the state. Israel citizen’s current point of dissatisfaction about Netanyahu is pinpointed on his recent action of taking away power from the judicial branch of Israel. Many citizens believe Netanyahu’s action is a threat to democracy and as Ronen Hoffman, who has researched Israel's foreign policy under Benjamin Netanyahu, characterized, “almost entirely focused on attempts to please his political base to ensure his political survival”, while also hugely influencing the state’s economy and business.

Netanyahu’s policies have a substantial impact on Israel’s businesses. For instance, he has taken a hardline stance on foreign workers, asserting, "We founded a Jewish and democratic state, and we can't let it turn into a foreign workers' state." Yet, the challenge with this stance is that foreign workers constitute a significant part of various Israeli businesses: According to the statistics from 2016, there were around a hundred thousand foreigners who are employed in Israel’s industry, mostly working in simple labor industries such as construction and agriculture–industries most Israeli citizens are reluctant to work. If Netanyahu’s action of limiting democracy and promoting conservatism continues, Israel will likely confront the heavy loss of foreign workers, resulting in a shortage of manpower for domestic companies.

Since the circumstance is deteriorating with more protesters, establishing new companies and maintaining the valuable companies are becoming more complex. Deportation of foreign workers is causing Israeli citizens to struggle at establishing new companies because they might not have enough workers. Challenging themselves through the unstable condition of the economy is not going to happen easily. “Given the atmosphere now, it’s almost irresponsible to start a company,” said Yanki Margalit, a veteran entrepreneur. Also, the risk of an unemployment crisis for companies that already employ many foreign workers will provoke the employees to move their companies to other countries.

The rampant judicial reform by Netanyahu can not only deteriorate the Israeli’s business circumstances, but also the state’s economy. The CEO of Marketvector remarked, “you can’t separate Israel’s unicorns and startups and scale-ups from the equity market. As funding slows, we’ll see the impact on the stock market, and that’s happening now.” As Israel imposes the contentious foreign policy, many predict that such policy is and will have a negative impact on Israel's profile, as the country encounters incessant volatility both politically, socially, and economically.

The ravage of Israel’s credibility will stagger its reliance towards other countries. According to CNBC, the recent decline in Israel’s national profile is increasing the cost of loans and hindering the fundraising from investments from the institutions in the United States, Europe, and others, which Israel tremendously relies upon. Economist Eckstein commented, “17% of Israeli production, 11% of the labor force, are bonded in research and development activity in the high tech sector, and all of this is financed by venture capital that comes from abroad, almost 90% of this,” underscoring how reliant Israel is towards the foreign investment for the most crucial field in country’s economy. The contraction of foreign investment due to recent volatility will eventually wreak havoc towards the country’s economy.

Another crucial aspect in Israel is its currency against U.S. dollars. After the declaration of reform and the ensuing protests, the value of shekel - Israel’s currency - plummeted 10% from the value before the reform. That will eventually hurt prominent parts of Israel’s economy such as real estate, as companies and individual citizens move their money into U.S. dollars or other currencies.

As the economy stumbles, Israel's stock market is also plunging. Right after judicial reform, the TA-125 index has decreased nearly 4%. TA-125 index is an important indicator of Israel’s prominent industries’ stock. Therefore, decline in this index represents that Israel’s major stocks are also declining and losing their momentum. As a real life example, Mobileye Global’s stock has drastically fallen from 47,000 to 41,000, in mid-february. A total of 12.8% decrease in this major technology company implies that recent reform is wreaking havoc to Israel’s economy.

“The only thing this government cares about is crushing Israeli democracy,” opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid quoted in the CNN interview. In the tenth consecutive week of protests, half a million Israelis–5% of Israel’s population–took to the streets to continue protesting against Netanyahu.