New wave of mass anti-government protest rallies engulfs Israel

Tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets on August 26 night to take part in mass protest rallies against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet and its judicial reform.

The largest rally was held in Tel Aviv where opposition attitudes prevail, a TASS correspondent reported.

The rally in Tel Aviv was traditionally held near government buildings in the eastern part of the city. The protesters were chanting anti-government slogans, waving Israeli flags and demanding to cancel the judicial reform and "save Israel’s democracy."

Mass protest rallies in Israel have been underway since the beginning of the year when the government presented a plan of a large-scale judicial reform. The opposition immediately voiced objections saying that it would undermine the foundations of democracy in Israel.

On July 24, members of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, passed by majority vote the first bill in a set of legislative judicial reform initiatives limiting the powers of Israel's Supreme Court of blocking any government decision deemed legally unreasonable, thus sparking mass protests by the opposition which boycotted the vote.