Thousands of Israeli protesters condemn far-right cabinet on 28th week

The rallies took place on Saturday against the policies of the regime's extremist cabinet, including a highly unpopular scheme promoted by Netanyahu to overhaul Israel's judicial system, with more than 100,000 gathering in the coastal city of Tel Aviv alone.

Elsewhere across the occupied territories, protesters demonstrated outside the residence of Israeli President Isaac Herzog in the city of al-Quds.

The so-called judicial overhaul scheme seeks to take away the Israeli Supreme Court's power to overrule the decisions made by the regime's politicians. It is also aimed at giving the Israeli cabinet a greater say in the process of selecting judges to the court.

Its supporters allege that the plan will end decades of overreach by judges, while opponents argue that it will remove necessary checks on the power that is wielded by the politicians.

Critics have also accused Netanyahu, who is on trial on several counts of corruption charges, of trying to use the scheme to quash possible judgments against him.

Ignoring the incessant protests, the Knesset went ahead on Monday to approve the first reading of the highly controversial and divisive plan.

The bill has to clear two more readings before it can be signed into law.
Protesters have vowed to keep holding the monumental rallies until the cabinet decides against pushing through with the overhaul plan.

"We came to be part of this amazing mass that comes every week. Hundreds of thousands of people coming for a non-violent protest" to make sure that the Israeli cabinet "gets the message and accordingly stops this terrible legislation," a protester was quoted by Reuters as saying.

Another protester, speaking to AFP, said the final approval of the overhaul scheme by the Knesset will have serious financial and political consequences, adding, "Things will be bad. People are already leaving, money is being lost, investors are fleeing, the world doesn't want to talk to us, nobody is happy with what's going on here."

Following stiff opposition and a wave of general strikes, Netanyahu ordered a pause in the scheme in March to allow for talks on the proposed bill. That cross-party dialogue, however, collapsed last month.

Netanyahu claims that he has presented a watered-down version of the plan to the Knesset for the final approval, which is devoid of some controversial points included in the original scheme.

"We have two and a half weeks to the end of parliament's summer session and we have to block them...," another protester said.