Protests as Israeli parliament takes first major step in Netanyahu’s overhaul

Israeli police in Jerusalem use a water cannon to disperse demonstrators blocking a road during a protest against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to overhaul the judicial system (Ohad Zwigenberg/AP)

Israel’s parliament has approved the first major law in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious plan to overhaul the country’s justice system, triggering a new burst of mass protests and drawing accusations that he is pushing the country towards authoritarian rule.

The vote, passed unanimously by Mr Netanyahu’s ruling coalition after the opposition stormed out of the hall, deepened the fissures that have tested the delicate social ties that bind the country, rattled the cohesion of its powerful military and repeatedly drawn concern from Israel’s closest ally, the United States.