Demonstrators in Israel's major cities clashed with police as protests over the government's planned judicial reforms rumbled on into their eleventh week.
An estimated 260,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and several smaller cities including Haifa, Netanya, and Herzylia last night according to estimates by Israeli broadcaster Channel 13.
The protestors were joined by key opposition figures, including former Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who spoke at the Ashdod rally.
Lapid said the government was "rushing forward" with legislation to turn Israel into a non-democratic country.
He added: "They have just one problem. They did not expect these demonstrations to come to Ashdod, to Beersheba, to the hills of Gush Etzion, to Rehovot and Jerusalem,
“The government has work to do. It is supposed to provide people security, but it’s not doing that. It’s supposed to manage the economy, it isn’t doing that. It’s supposed to unite the nation, they are tearing the nation apart."
Israeli police said they detained several counter-protestors including a 57-year-old man who attempted to ram demonstrators with his car in Herzylia as well as a 24-year-old who drove a motorcycle into a group of people in Givatayim.
Multiple protestors blocking the Ayalon freeway in Tel Aviv were arrested and the police deployed water cannons to disperse crowds around key road junctions in the north of the country.
In the south of Israel, protestors were joined for the first time by members of the country's Bedouin minority who stood alongside Jewish demonstrators bearing signs carrying anti-reform slogans.
התחלנו. ההפגנה הראשונה בחברה הבדואית בנגב. צומת חורה pic.twitter.com/d5NkzzItTW
— ilana curiel (@ilanacuriel) March 18, 2023
Event organisers have promised that the size of protests on Israel's streets as the Netanyahu government attempts to push through its reform plans next week.
According to a statement issued by demonstration leaders, next Thursday will be a “national day of paralysis.”
They added: “Next week Israel’s government intends to pass the dictatorship and religious coercion law,”
“Hundreds of people will line up against them like an iron wall and back the High Court and heads of the judicial system to stop the coup.
"Every citizen must come out and take a stand in these fateful moments of the State of Israel. Together, hundreds of thousands will save Israeli democracy,”
Israel's government is this week planning to introduce a number of controversial pieces of legislation to the Knesset including a bill to allow Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to receive donations to fund his legal expenses in his criminal trials.
Other laws the government will attempt to pass include a ban on Chametz in hospitals which was previously struck down by the High Court, a bill to overturn the ban on Shas leader Aryeh Deri serving as a government minister, and a bill to remove the legal obligation for the Prime Minister to recuse himself from conflicts of interest arising from his criminal trial.
