Protests across Israel spiked on Monday – and even the national newspapers joined in by printing completely blacked out front pages.
The country has been rocked by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempts to overhaul the judiciary and water down the Supreme Court’s powers, while strengthening parliament.
The move has prompted thousands of Israelis protesting over the last seven months.
Demonstrations have since reached a head this week after the Israeli lawmakers revealed the first part of Netanyahu’s plans on Monday, leading to huge clashes between demonstrators and police in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Here’s what you need to know.
Why are people protesting?
People are protesting over concerns that Israel will become more autocratic at Netanyahu’s hand if these reforms go ahead.
The PM is also currently on trial for corruption charges, and protesters fear these new proposals are a power grab, partially driven by his own political and personal issues.
On Monday, the parliament voted in favour of his judicial reform bill (dubbed the so-called “reasonableness” bill), with 64 support votes and 0 against after opposition lawmakers walked out in protest.
Some shouted, “for shame” as they left, according to Reuters news agency.
This triggered saw some of Israel’s largest protests in the country’s history – at least 22 people were arrested.
Even the major national front pages joined in, by printing blacked out front pages.
According to The Jerusalem Post, this was an ad from protest groups made up of hi-tech companies. It had a small slogan which reads: “A black day for Israeli democracy.”
These demonstrations started months ago, when he first unveiled the plans – and they initially forced the PM to pause the overhaul.
However, after negotiations with opposition MPs went nowhere, Netanyahu then decided to start rolling out the proposals gradually instead of just in one bulk piece of legislation.
Protesters fear Netanyahu and his nationalist and ultra-Orthodox religious allies in parliament want to change the law so they get more freedom with who they elect, and fire the country’s independent attorney general, Israel Democracy Institute’s senior researcher Amir Fuchs told Associated Press.
The judiciary is key to monitoring executive power in Israel, as there is no secondary lawmaking house like the UK has with the House of Lords, which keeps the House of Commons in check.
There’s also no local governance and lacks a formal constitution.
It’s just Netanyahu and his majority coalition, a group of lawmakers who have previously called for full annexation of the occupied West Bank, discriminated against the LGBTQ+ community and Palestinian citizens of Israel, and limited the rights of women.
What do we know about the proposals?
This week parliament approved a bill which includes a measure to stop Supreme Court judges striking down government decisions if they’re “unreasonable”.
There would just need to be a simple majority in parliament to overturn the decision.
Parliament would also get the final say in selecting judges.
Netanyahu’s allies say this helps bring power back to elected officials, and reduce the powers of unelected judges.
But, others argue it’s a power grab, and that the Supreme Court only uses these powers in rare cases.
It means the government could get arbitrary decisions passed, make improper appointments or firings and it could open the door to corruption, the Israel Democracy Institute told AP news agency.
But Netanyahu has completely written off the criticism, saying: “This is an attempt to mislead you over something that has no basis in reality.”
What happens next?
The tensions are likely to rumble on for some time yet.
Israel’s Histadrut trade union confederation has threatened a general strike earlier this year, and military reservists in the country’s air force said they were considering refusing to report to duty if the bill passed.
Political watchdog group and centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid claims that he will challenge the law in the Supreme Court, and it could issue a “temporary writ” to stop the law going ahead until there’s a proper review.
If the government doesn’t honour this, critics say it would cause a constitutional crisis.
Even the White House, an ally of Israel, has said it was “unfortunate” that the law was passed, and US president Joe Biden admitted the reforms were “divisive”.
Israel’s president warned political leaders on Monday that the country was “in a state of national emergency”.