The 15th week of judicial reform protests in Israel began on Saturday evening in Tel Aviv despite the government's announcement that legislation won't begin again until after May.
Protestors gathered at Habima Square ahead of a planned march toward Kaplan where various activists were set to speak after Shabbat.
Other protests kicked off in Ramat Hasharon and other locations. Another march was planned to set out in Haifa.
A counter-protest in favor of the judicial reform was held in Netanya.
"Not far from here, there is a protest that is led by Itamar Ben-Gvir," said opposition leader Yair Lapid at an anti-reform protest in Netanya. "This is a historical innovation. Show me one time in history when a government protested against its citizens!"
He went on to say that "in any other democratic country" the national security minister would not be allowed to serve as a minister because of his conviction of supporting terrorism.
"The government arranged the protest here in Netanya because it's scared of you. It's rightfully scared of you. Because it knows that every bad and anti-democratic government needs to be scared of one thing: Determined citizens who aren't willing to give up."
Lapid's wife Lihi also spoke in a protest in Herzliya.
"We, the Israeli mothers from the center, the Right and the Left are allowed to ask - What country are our kids enlisting to protect?" she said. "What country are we leaving them? What country did their parents fight for? In the three months that this country has existed, nine women were murdered. What did they do about it? They voted against monitoring [known abusers] which could have saved one of them. They voted against it only because it was a law that the previous government began legislating."
In preparation for the protests, Israel Police closed roads in Tel Aviv and Haifa from as early as 4:30 p.m. in the former and 5 p.m. in the latter.
Later in the evening, the police stopped some 200 protestors from going on to the Ayalon highway and blocking it.
Protests continue despite legislation freeze
The protests have continued the last few weeks despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing a freeze of the legislation and the beginning of negotiations at President Isaac Herzog's residence in Jerusalem.
The government also said earlier this week that the reform's legislation will not continue until after May as the government focuses on passing the budget that has to be passed to prevent dissolving the government.
Coalition and opposition negotiating teams are expected to begin marathon talks this week at the President's Residence with the hope of reaching an agreement over the judicial reforms by the time the Knesset begins its summer session on April 30.
According to a statement by National Unity's negotiating team last week, the sides all agreed to a request by party leader MK Benny Gantz to begin by discussing the issue of the makeup of Israel's Judicial Selection Committee
The reason for the request was twofold: First, the judicial selection committee is at the heart of the reforms since it deals with the principle of non-politicization of the courts. Solving it would allow progress and trust-building, while failure to solve it would render the rest of the talks pointless. Second, a coalition law to alter the committee such that the coalition has a majority is ready for its second and third reading in the Knesset and can be brought forward quickly. The threat of its passing should be nullified, and therefore the committee makeup should be solved first, the party explained.