Israelis protest judicial overhaul despite violence surge

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Thousands of Israelis gathered for a weekly demonstration against the government’s contentious judicial overhaul plans despite security concerns stemming from a surge in Israeli-Palestinian violence. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has put the plans on hold last month as the protests gained huge momentum and united large swaths of Israeli society against a series of bills that aim at weakening the country’s supreme court. The main protest in Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial hub, was held roughly a mile from Friday’s attack in which an Italian tourist was killed and five other Italian and British citizens were wounded when a car rammed into a group of tourists. In Tel Aviv, protesters held a moment of silence for the victims.