At least 18 detained for protests against Israeli judicial reform

MADRID, 25 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) -

At least 18 people have been arrested during the protests against the Israeli judicial reform presented by the Government and approved this Monday in the Knesset, in front of which thousands of protesters were already present during the session.

The mobilizations in the country, which accuse the Government of carrying out an institutional "coup" through the reform, had cut off the Ayalon highway, although they have already been expelled by the Police.

The clashes with the Police in Tel Aviv, in which the authorities have used water cannons, have resulted in 18 arrests and five slightly injured demonstrators, in addition to ten injured policemen, as published by the newspaper 'The Times of Israel'.

Despite having been expelled from the highway, the activists have continued for a while to concentrate near it until the authorities have finally announced the end of the protests.

The road has been blocked for four hours and is littered with rubble, remains of fires and barricades, so it has not yet been reported that it will reopen.

Roadblocks have multiplied throughout the country, in one of them, near Kfar Saba, a driver would have rammed his vehicle against the protesters. At least three people are slightly injured and the driver has been arrested. A video broadcast on social networks shows the moment of the accident and how the conduit flees the place.

The Kaplan movement, the main organization behind the call for the protests against the judicial reform, has warned that they will continue to mobilize "until the end".

Critics of the judicial reform argue that it is an attack on Israel's balance of powers, fundamentally on the foundations on which democracy is based, since it gives Parliament unusual influence to limit judicial powers.