TEL AVIV (Reuters) -&nbsp;Tens&nbsp;of&nbsp;thousands&nbsp;of&nbsp;Israelis joined&nbsp;protests across the country, now entering their 20th week, on Saturday&nbsp;against&nbsp;Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's contested plans to tighten controls on the Supreme Court.
The&nbsp;planned&nbsp;overhaul, which would give the government control over naming judges to the Supreme Court and let parliament override many rulings, was paused after opponents organised some of the biggest street&nbsp;protests ever seen in Israel.
The government accuses activist judges of increasingly usurping the role of parliament, and says the&nbsp;overhaul&nbsp;is needed to restore balance between the judiciary and elected politicians.
Critics say it will remove vital checks and balances underpinning a democratic state and hand unchecked power to the government.
A sea of blue and white&nbsp;Israeli&nbsp;flags, which have become a symbol of the&nbsp;protests, coated a central highway in Tel Aviv.&nbsp;Protestors chanted, "Israel is almost a dictatorship," as a banner reading "stop them" was held up by the crowd.
"It scares me that we are still a few hours away at any given moment from turning from a democracy to a dictatorship," Sagi Mizrahi, a 40-year-old computer programmer told Reuters in Tel Aviv. "I'm here because of the&nbsp;judicial&nbsp;system and the laws that are still sitting on the table, it's just scary."
Protests garnered lower attendance last Saturday as a truce between Israel and the militant Islamic Jihad group officially came into effect, ending a five-day escalation which was the worst episode of cross-border fire since a 10-day war in 2021.&nbsp;Protests seemed to have been invigorated with Hebrew media estimating some 90,000-100,000 in attendance.
The police force did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"Gradually, myself my kids and my grandkids are losing the hope to live here in a democratic state and to have a normal life like every person deserves," Hava Golan, 65 year-old biology professor said. &nbsp;
&nbsp;
(Reporting by Emily Rose, Editing by Louise Heavens)

you might like

Tens of thousands protest against planned Israeli judicial overhaul