Tens of thousands of Israelis opposed to a judicial overhaul sought by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu marched to Jerusalem on Saturday, as pressure mounts on his right-wing government to scrap a bill that would curtail the Supreme Court's powers, Reuters reports.
Carrying blue and white Israeli flags, a kilometres (miles) long column of protesters hiked up the winding highway to Jerusalem under a scorching summer sun, to the sounds of beating drums and anti-government chants and cheers.
The protesters have been walking for days through a heatwave, camping out overnight and met by local residents offering food and drink, with their numbers swelling as they reached the city gates in an unprecedented sight.
Netanyahu's religious-nationalist coalition says the bill, which parliament is scheduled to vote on by Monday, is needed to balance out the branches of power because the Court has become too interventionist.
Polls suggest widespread misgivings among Israelis, and Washington has urged Netanyahu to seek consensus on any judicial reforms which should also keep Israel's judiciary independent.
The crisis has even sown divisions within the military, long viewed as an apolitical melting pot for a fractious society, with concerns about war-readiness voiced on both sides of the debate.
