ISRAELIS continued protests on Saturday against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government to overhaul the judiciary in the country.

This is the 23rd week of demonstrations since January after the government, made up of ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox religious parties, was sworn in to power.

At times more than 200,000 demonstrators have been in the streets. Protest organisers have said they will not give up until the government cancels the proposed legal changes rather than the current situation of merely delaying their implementation.

In Tel Aviv, where the main weekly protest with tens of thousands is held, protesters held a giant banner reading “Type of citizen: dead,” a reference to surging killings among Israel’s Arab communities.

Other protesters marched behind an effigy of a chained-up Mr Netanyahu amid a sea of Israel’s blue-and-white flags.

The planned changes would weaken the judiciary and limit judicial oversight on laws and government decisions.

Critics say the proposals are a direct threat to civil rights and the rights of minorities and marginalised groups. They also warn it will grant the government unrestrained power.

The government says the judicial plan is meant to rein in what it says is an overly interventionist Supreme Court.