At least 18 people have been arrested during the protests against the Israeli judicial reform presented by the Government and approved this monday in the Knesset, in front of which there were already thousands of protesters during the session.

The mobilizations in the countrythat They accuse the government of carrying out a “coup” institutional through the reform, they had cut off the Ayalon highway, although they have already been expelled by the Police.

Clashes with the Police in Tel Aviv, in which the authorities have used water cannons, have resulted in 18 arrests and five demonstrators slightly injuredto which are added ten wounded policemen, as published by the newspaper ‘The Times of Israel’.

Despite having been expelled from the highway, the activists have continued for a while to concentrate near it until the authorities have finally announced the end of the protests.

The road has been blocked for four hours and is littered with rubble, remains of fires and barricadesso its reopening has not yet been reported.

The road closures They have multiplied throughout the country, in one of them, near Kfar Saba, a driver would have rammed his vehicle against the protesters. At least three people are slightly injured and the driver has been arrested. A video broadcast on social networks shows the moment of the accident and how the conduit flees the place.

The Kaplan movement, the main organization behind the call for the protests against the judicial reform, has warned that they will continue to mobilize “until the end”.

Critics of judicial reform argue that it is about an attack on Israel’s balance of powerfundamentally to the bases on which democracy is based, since it grants Parliament an unusual influence to limit judicial powers.

The US calls the approval of the judicial reform with the minimum necessary majority “unfortunate”

The Government of the United States considers that it is “regrettable” that the Israeli Parliament has approved the first law of the controversial judicial reform with the minimum necessary majority.

The spokesman for the US State Department, Matthew Miller, has remarked that the “important changes of a democracy” must “have the greatest possible consensus”especially in the event that they are durable, for which reason he has maintained that it has been “unfortunate” that the vote was held “with the smallest possible majority”.

“We understand that the talks are ongoing and are likely to continue in the coming weeks and months to forge a broader compromise, even with the Knesset in recess,” he said at a press conference in which has shown his support for the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, in “his attempt to build a broader consensus through political dialogue.”

Miller has noted that the Biden Administration has felt a responsibility to “talk about this measure and express concern” on the occasion of “friendship with the Government of Israel and the Israeli people.

“We will continue to engage with the Government of Israel on the other pending legislation in the coming weeks. But rather than think of this in terms of consequences for our relationship, we think of our relationship as one where we have areas where we disagree and cooperate, and areas where we do not hesitate to voice our concerns,” he added.