Israeli PM Netanyahu under pressure to back down on judicial reform

Israel's largest trade union group launched a strike across a range of sectors on Monday, joining a surging protest movement against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to overhaul the judiciary — a plan that is facing unprecedented opposition.

The strike was called by the Histadrut umbrella group, which represents nearly 800,000 workers in health, transit and banking, among many other fields. Other sectors were also falling in line, with local governments, which manage pre-schools and other essential services, as well as a main doctors union announcing they would walk out.

"Today we are stopping everyone's descent toward the abyss," said Arnon Bar-David, the union group head.

It was unclear if the strikes would prompt Netanyahu to halt the overhaul. Universities across the country said they were shutting their doors "until further notice," while departing flights out of the country's main international airport were grounded in protest, affecting thousands of travellers.

Thousands of protesters were gathering on Monday outside the Knesset in a bid to ramp up the pressure on the government.

On Monday afternoon, Netanyahu issued his first statement since he fired Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, urging against violence ahead of a planned counterprotest in Jerusalem organized by ultranationalist supporters of the judicial overhaul.

The counterprotest was also slated to take place outside parliament. "They won't steal the election from us," read a flyer for the event, organized by the Religious Zionist Party.

"I call on all protesters in Jerusalem, right and left, to behave responsibly and not act violently," Netanyahu wrote on Twitter.

Tens of thousands of people poured into the streets around the country Sunday in a spontaneous show of anger at Netanyahu's decision to fire Gallant, who criticized the overhaul.

Chanting "the country is on fire," they lit bonfires on Tel Aviv's main highway, closing the throughway and many others throughout the country for hours.

The overhaul, driven by Netanyahu and his allies in Israel's most right-wing government ever, has plunged Israel into one of its worst domestic crises. It has sparked a sustained and intensifying protest movement that has spread to nearly all sectors of society, including its military, where reservists have increasingly come out publicly to say they will not serve a country veering toward autocracy.

The crisis has shone a light on Netanyahu himself, Israel's longest-serving leader, and the lengths he may be willing to go to in order to maintain his grip on power, even as he battles the corruption charges. The firing of defence minister Yoav Gallant at a time of heightened security threats in the West Bank and elsewhere appeared to be a last straw for many.

Gallant had been the first senior member of the ruling Likud party to speak out against it, saying the deep divisions were threatening to weaken the military.

On Monday, as the embers of the highway bonfires were being cleared, Israel's ceremonial President Isaac Herzog urged Netanyahu to immediately halt the overhaul, calling on the government to put aside political considerations for the sake of the nation.