Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have taken part in what some are calling the biggest protest in the country’s history.
Protests against government plans for a radical overhaul of the judicial system have been running for 10 weeks.
Record numbers of demonstrators turned out in cities such as Haifa, while about 200,000 are believed to have taken to the streets in Tel Aviv.
Critics say the reforms will undermine democracy.
But Benjamin Netanyahu’s government says planned changes are better for the electorate.
Organisers said as many as 500,000 pro-democracy protesters took to the streets nationwide on Saturday, in what the Israeli Haaretz newspaper called “the largest demonstration in the country’s history”.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid told crowds in the southern city of Be’er Sheva that the country was facing “the greatest crisis in its history”.
“A wave of terrorism is hitting us, our economy is crashing, money is escaping the country. Iran just signed yesterday a new agreement with Saudi Arabia. But the only thing this government cares about is crushing Israeli democracy,” he said.
Tamir Guytsabry, a protester in Tel Aviv, told Reuters: “It’s not a judicial reform. It’s a revolution that [is] making Israel go to full dictatorship and I want Israel to stay a democracy for my kids.”
The protests against the judicial reforms have brought hundreds of thousands of people on to the streets.
The reforms aim to give the elected government decisive influence over the choice of judges and limit the ability of the Supreme Court to rule against the executive or strike down legislation. (BBC)