Israel hit by 'day of disruption' as disputed judicial bill nears key vote

Israeli protesters blocked highways and briefly mobbed the stock exchange on a "Day of Disruption" on Tuesday as legislators prepared to ratify one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's disputed judicial bills before parliament goes on summer recess.

The reform drive - cast by opponents as curbing court independence and by Netanyahu as balancing branches of government - has set off a half-year-long constitutional crisis and contributed to US concern about his hard-right coalition.

With the premier wielding a comfortable Knesset majority, thousands of protesters, many waving Israeli flags, mounted a fresh wave of protests on Tuesday in the hope of scuppering legislation slated for final voting next week.

"We are here to say to Israel's government: The more you press, the harder we resist," Jonathan Eran Kali, a 62-year-old retired tech worker, told Reuters at a demonstration outside the Habimah Theatre in Tel Aviv.

"We are saying no to dictatorship," added Kali, who was wearing a hydration pack as a precaution against scorching weather.

Dozens of protesters entered the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, tossing fake banknotes as symbols of corruption. Police reported a half-dozen highway closures by demonstrators and at least 17 arrests. Medics said a woman was hit by a car and injured.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wished the woman good health on Twitter, saying the government was proceeding with reforms in "measured steps while continuing to call for broad consensus".

He deemed the protesters "a vocal few, inflated by the media".

In a delaying tactic, the parliamentary opposition filed 27,000 objections to a coalition bill that would limit the Supreme Court's ability to void decisions or appointments made by the government, ministers and elected officials by stripping the judges of the power to deem such decisions "unreasonable".

Still, the coalition looked set to bring the bill to the plenum on Sunday for final votes before the July 30 recess.

Supporters of the bill have described it as in keeping with a 2020 lecture by a Supreme Court justice, Noam Sohlberg, in which he voiced misgivings about some "reasonableness" rulings.

But Sohlberg on Monday distanced himself from the bill, saying in a statement: "I did not have legislation in mind." Netanyahu's Likud party brushed that off, saying it would pass the bill as planned "in accordance with the Sohlberg outline."