How is global media reporting Israel's judicial reform protests?

Ahead of a contentious Knesset vote on major proposed changes to the judiciary, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under international criticism for the proposals, with protesters and many spectators abroad raising concerns that the changes will weaken democracy in Israel. Here are some instances of international media's reaction to the protests against the reforms:

The Associated Press

The Associated Press, which is based in New York, reported that Israeli police fired water cannons and stun grenades at demonstrators blocking a highway in Tel Aviv while protesters fought with police near Netanyahu's residence as the protests turned violent for the first time.

The report added that thousands of Israelis held a "national disruption day," which it said was the latest in a series of protests against Netanyahu's plan to weaken the Supreme Court.

"The plan has drawn heavy criticism from wide swaths of Israeli society and pleas from international allies for Netanyahu to slow down," the AP reported. "A wave of unusually intense Israeli-Palestinian violence in the occupied West Bank has helped fuel tensions, with radical West Bank settlers rampaging through a Palestinian town earlier this week."

The report went on to describe the current government coalition as "a collection of ultra-Orthodox and hard-line nationalist parties," saying that from the perspective of Netanyahu and his cabinet, the reforms are necessary to limit the power of unelected judges, while critics say Netanyahu has a personal vendetta against the justice system due to his pending corruption cases and that he is moving the country toward autocracy.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

The London-based BBC described brutal scenes of police violence against protesters, noting that police were filmed kneeling on someone's neck while he was being arrested.

"Speaking on Israeli Channel 13 TV, one protester called Zeev commented: 'This is terrible violence, no-one touched the policemen. We were in a protest of civil people. We didn't expect such a thing. We are here to support democracy,'" the report read.

"Polls have suggested the government's plan is not popular and most Israelis would prefer a compromise to be reached," the report added.

Reuters

Reuters, based in London, reported that the United States demanded that Netanyahu condemn Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's comment that the Palestinian town of Huwara "needs to be erased."

"The head of a pro-settler party in Netanyahu's nationalist-religious coalition, Smotrich made the comments at a conference on Wednesday amid a spate of deadly Palestinian attacks and Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank," the report read.

Reuters added that US State Department spokesperson Ned Price called Smotrich's remark "irresponsible," "repugnant" and "disgusting."

"The unusually forthright reaction from Washington underlined the increasing international alarm at the escalating violence in the West Bank, where three Israelis and a Palestinian were killed in two days of bloodshed earlier in the week," the report added.