JERUSALEM (Reuters) -&nbsp;Tens&nbsp;of&nbsp;thousands&nbsp;of&nbsp;Israelis took to the&nbsp;streets&nbsp;on Saturday for a fifth week of protests against&nbsp;judicial&nbsp;overhaul&nbsp;plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new government which critics say threaten democratic checks on ministers by the courts.
The plans, which the government says are needed to curb overreach by judges, have drawn fierce opposition from groups including lawyers, and raised concerns among business leaders, widening already deep political divisions in&nbsp;Israeli society.
"We (are) ...here in order to demonstrate against the government of&nbsp;Israel&nbsp;under Netanyahu, which in our belief is against democracy and are going to do anything they can in order to&nbsp;take&nbsp;out democracy of&nbsp;Israel," said Illan Bendori, 70, at a protest in Tel Aviv.
Netanyahu has dismissed the protests as a refusal by leftist opponents to accept the results of last November's election, which produced one of the most right-wing governments in&nbsp;Israel's history.
"We are ...very proud of our democracy and he wants to make&nbsp;Israel&nbsp;something else. We will not agree, we will do everything in our power to stop it," Hadar Weis, 61, told Reuters at the protest in Tel Aviv.
The protesters say&nbsp;Israeli democracy would be undermined if the government succeeds in pushing through the plans, which would tighten political control over&nbsp;judicial&nbsp;appointments and limit the Supreme Court's powers to overturn government decisions or Knesset laws.
Additional protests and partial strikes are called for Monday when a first reading of the proposals is set to&nbsp;take&nbsp;place in the parliament.
Israel's N12 news released a poll on Saturday revealing that 62% of&nbsp;Israelis want the&nbsp;proposed&nbsp;judicial&nbsp;plans to be either paused or halted all together.
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(Reporting by Emily Rose; editing by Jason Neely)

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Tens of thousands take to streets of Israel opposing proposed judicial overhaul