TEL AVIV (Dispatches) -- Tens of thousands have protested across Occupied Palestine against the right-wing cabinet for the fourth consecutive week.
Protests took place in several cities, including Tel Aviv, Al-Quds and Haifa, as well as in New York.
Two demonstrations in Tel Aviv began at 19:00 (17:00 GMT), with one beginning on Kaplan Street and the other at Habima Square. Streets in and around the city were blocked off to traffic from the afternoon.
In occupied Al-Quds, protests started in front of the president’s residence beginning at 19:30.
Police estimate that 40,000 protesters were in Tel Aviv, with 12,000 protesters in Haifa.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the southern city of Be’er Sheva.
Meanwhile, several hundred protesters gathered in New York City to decry Netanyahu’s regime and its planned judicial overhaul, according to the Times of Israel.
The crowd in Washington Square park carried signs that read, “Fascism is not OK”.
The demonstrations in Occupied Palestine were organized criticism of some extremist stances the ultra-conservative regime has adopted, including planned reforms to the country’s justice system.
A main concern of opposition groups is a recently-proposed reform that would allow parliament to override decisions made by the supreme court. Analysts have warned that such a program could potentially allow lawmakers to uphold any annulment of the corruption charges Netanyahu is being tried on.
Netanyahu is the first sitting Israeli prime minister indicted while in office.
He took office late last month following his 1 November election win, heading a coalition that includes a politician who last year admitted tax evasion and a clutch of far-right personalities, including one who once kept a portrait in his home of a man who massacred scores of Palestinian worshippers.
Earlier this month, the new security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, ordered the state’s police commissioner to enforce a directive to remove Palestinian flags from public spaces a day after one was waved at a previous anti-regime protest in Tel Aviv.
There have been regular protests against the regime for several weeks, with more than 100,000 people turning up in Tel Aviv on January 21.
This week’s protests come after seven Zionists were killed in a retaliatory attack on a synagogue in occupied East Al-Quds on Friday. On Saturday, a 13-year-old shot and seriously injured two Zionists near Al-Quds’ Old City.
That was after nine Palestinians were martyred Thursday and dozens injured in an Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin. In all, Zionist forces have martyred at least 33 Palestinians this month.
The Israeli massacre provoked grief and anger in the besieged Gaza Strip. Rockets were fired at the occupying regime, an attack claimed by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Netanyahu’s cabinet, which is filled with extremist politicians aligned with the illegal settlement movement in the occupied West Bank, approved punitive measures against Palestinians on Saturday in response to the pair of retaliatory shootings.
Netanyahu’s office said the cabinet agreed to seal off the attacker’s home immediately ahead of its demolition. It also plans to cancel social security benefits for the families of attackers, make it easier for Zionists to get gun licenses and step up efforts to collect what it considers “illegal” weapons.