Hundreds of anti-government protesters converged on Ben-Gurion International Airport on Monday afternoon, with some in the crowd scuffling with police who tried to clear them from blocking access to the terminal that handles most flights in and out of the country.
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The sidewalk outside the arrivals hall overflowed with protesters carrying flags, blowing horns and banging drums. A cordon of police lined the road as passenger cars and buses slowly drove past.
Earlier in the day, demonstrators briefly shut off access to a major Israeli seaport as the half-year-long crisis over the judicial overhaul again builds up steam. Demonstrators in the morning blocked the gate of the northern Haifa port for 1.5 hours. A port spokesperson said they had held up the entry of around 100 trucks and delayed the loading of cargo.
The demonstrators were protesting against a plan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to overhaul the judiciary. Police have pledged to keep Ben-Gurion operating and an airports authority spokesman said so far there had been no unusual flight delays. One flyer circulated online called on demonstrators to come to Ben-Gurion with suitcases and passports, suggesting that they planned to pose as passengers in order to bypass the police cordons.
The overhaul plan would give more control of judicial appointments to Netanyahu's religious-nationalist coalition. Talks with the opposition on securing a compromise on broadly agreed legal reforms have so far failed.
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