Crisis in heart of Israel deeper than in Netanyahu's heart

His comments came as the Israeli regime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been hospitalised for an emergency procedure to receive a pacemaker ahead of a key parliamentary vote on his controversial judicial overhaul plan.

Netanyahu’s office said on Sunday that he would be placed under sedation and that the regime's Justice Minister Yariv Levin, would stand in for him. The announcement, issued well after midnight, came a week after Netanyahu was hospitalised for what was described as dehydration.

It also came after a tumultuous day that saw some of the largest protests to date against his judicial changes.

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets on Saturday night, while thousands marched into occupied Quds and camped out near the Knesset, or parliament.

Initial reports indicated that at least 550,000 joined the anti-Netanyahu protests for the 29th consecutive week on Saturday night. 

For more than 28 weeks, the occupied territories are hosting a wave of widespread protests against the controversial plan of the Israeli Prime Minister's cabinet to carry out judicial reforms.

The so-called judicial overhaul scheme seeks to take away the Israeli regime's Supreme Court's power to overrule the decisions made by the regime's politicians. It is also aimed at giving the Israeli regime's cabinet a greater say in the process of selecting judges to the court.

Its supporters allege that the plan will end decades of overreach by judges, while opponents argue that it will remove necessary checks on the power that is wielded by the politicians.

Critics have also accused Netanyahu, who is on trial on several counts of corruption charges, of trying to use the scheme to quash possible judgments against him.