JERUSALEM — In what was anticipated to develop into one of many largest mass protests in Israeli historical past, tens of 1000’s of Israelis demonstrated on Monday in cities throughout the nation to voice their opposition to the right-wing authorities’s plans to overhaul the judicial system.

The dimensions of the protests mirrored a deep disagreement in Israeli society over the best construction and way forward for the nation’s democratic establishments, amid rising fears that the rift may set off political violence between factions and even civil conflict.

The demonstrations adopted a dramatic speech on Sunday night time by Israel’s primarily ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, wherein he known as for compromise and warned that the disaster had left the nation “getting ready to constitutional and social collapse,” and presumably “a violent conflict.”

Rooted in a decades-old tradition conflict between totally different components of Israeli society, the standoff started after Israel’s new authorities — the most right-wing and religiously conservative within the nation’s historical past — entered workplace in late December and virtually instantly sought to considerably scale back judicial oversight of Parliament and enhance the federal government’s management over who will get to be a decide.

To the federal government and its supporters, the transfer would improve Israeli democracy by restoring parity within the relationship between elected lawmakers and an unelected and interventionist judiciary, and making certain that authorities choices higher replicate the electoral selections of a majority of the inhabitants.

To critics, the proposals would as an alternative harm Israeli democracy by giving an excessive amount of energy to the federal government; endangering minority rights; and eradicating limits on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s means to enact laws that may enable him to flee punishment in his ongoing corruption trial. Mr. Netanyahu denies that the proposals are for his private profit.

The main focus of the protests on Monday was a street in central Jerusalem that connects the three branches of presidency — the Parliament, the Supreme Courtroom and the prime minister’s headquarters.

Roughly 100,000 individuals had gathered there by midafternoon, in keeping with Kan, the Israeli public broadcaster, with many extra anticipated to reach later within the day. Israeli media reported {that a} 2.5-mile lengthy convoy of vehicles was driving to Jerusalem from northern Israel, bringing 1000’s extra protesters to the town.

Transport officers and firms organized additional trains and buses to deal with the additional demand for Jerusalem-bound transit. Uncommon traces fashioned outdoors stations in Tel Aviv as crowds of protesters waited to embark on trains heading to the capital.

Of their feedback, speeches and banners, the protesters expressed fears that the judicial proposals would flip Israel right into a dictatorship.

“You voted Bibi,” learn one protester’s placard, utilizing a nickname for Mr. Netanyahu. “You bought Mussolini.”

Gili Bar-Hillel, a writer and translator, drove from Tel Aviv to take part, and described the judicial overhaul as “a regime coup.”

“I can’t stand and watch and say I didn’t do something,” mentioned Ms. Bar-Hillel, 48. “We’re not removed from a scenario the place we received’t be allowed to protest,” she added. “It’s a slippery slope.”

The protest adopted weeks of common demonstrations in Tel Aviv, the place an analogous variety of individuals have gathered each Saturday night time because the begin of the yr. However Monday’s demonstrations had been thought-about extra spectacular as a result of they occurred throughout a weekday and primarily in Jerusalem, a right-wing stronghold.

Inside Parliament, a government-controlled committee voted on Monday to advance a part of the proposed laws, setting the stage for a debate on the ground of Parliament within the coming days — step one towards turning the plan into legislation in some unspecified time in the future within the coming months.

The vote set off a fracas within the committee room after opposition lawmakers, considered one of them in tears, chanted in opposition to the choice, and a few of them clambered over tables to confront the committee chair, Simcha Rothman, a authorities lawmaker.

The strikes got here hours after the federal government introduced its first efforts to strengthen Israel’s settlements within the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution, giving retroactive authorization to 9 settlements that had been constructed by teams of settlers with out official state approval.

Although giant and loud, the protests on Monday mirrored just one a part of Israeli public opinion. Roughly 44 p.c of Israelis help the judicial overhaul and 41 p.c oppose it, in keeping with a latest ballot by the Jewish Folks Coverage Institute, a Jerusalem-based analysis group.

Myra Noveck, Gabby Sobelman and Hiba Yazbek contributed reporting.