Israeli police
have clashed with protesters amid huge demonstrations against the government's
controversial judicial reform plans.
Police used
water cannon to clear a major highway, and 66 people have been arrested across
the country.
It comes after a
bill to remove the power of the Supreme Court to review ministers' decisions
passed its first reading in parliament on Monday night.
The reforms have
polarised the country, sparking months of mass demonstrations.
The bill is part
of a package of reforms aimed at scaling back the power of the judiciary that
have been proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, which is
the most right-wing in Israel's history.
It argues that
the courts exercise too much political interference, overriding the will of the
electorate. Critics of the reforms say the government's plans are too extensive
and are a grave threat to the country's democratic system.
Protest leaders
had called for a Day of Resistance on Tuesday in the event that the bill brought
on Monday night passed the first of three readings required before it can
become law.
In dramatic
scenes inside the parliament building in Jerusalem just before MPs voted on the
bill, protesters tried to glue themselves to the floor by the entrance to the
chamber before they were dragged away by guards.
The
demonstrations began early on Tuesday morning, as protesters waving Israeli
flags, banging drums, carrying flares and chanting slogans blocked roads across
the country, causing snarl-ups during rush hour.
In Tel Aviv,
video showed a police horse knocking a protester to the ground, while further
north in Herzliya, protesters burnt tyres in the middle of a junction before
being removed by police.
Thousands of
demonstrators converged on Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport later on
Tuesday, packing into a designated protest area at Terminal 3, the airport's
main hub. Some complained of overcrowding and being hemmed in by the police.
Earlier, a group
of war veterans protested inside the terminal, with supporters dressed as
red-caped characters from the dystopian novel and TV series The Handmaid's Tale
greeting people arriving into the country.
Demonstrations
have also been called outside the president's residence in Jerusalem, the
Israeli defence ministry in Tel Aviv, and the US embassy's branch office there.
The
controversial reform plans have deeply divided the country, with weekly mass
protests - often drawing hundreds of thousands onto the streets - since the
government unveiled them at the start of the year.
Significantly,
hundreds of reservists - the backbone of Israel's military - have threatened to
stop turning up for duty in protest at the reforms.
On Tuesday,
reservists from Israel's Shin Bet domestic security agency and the Mossad
intelligence service also said they would follow suit.
The military's
chief of staff has said reservists do not have the right to refuse to show up,
and the military has said it will act against anyone who follows through on
their threats.
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