Hundreds of thousands of Israelis protest after Arab sector deaths

Tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets on Saturday evening to protest against the policies of the right-wing religious government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The protests focused on the dramatic increase in crimes in Israel's Arab sector. Organizers said more than 100,000 participants attended a rally in the coastal city of Tel Aviv alone.
"Blood is flowing in our streets," said the mayor of the Arab city of Tira, Maamun Abd Elhai, during a speech in Tel Aviv.
A senior member of his municipality was shot dead near a police station in Tira on Monday.
The mayor accused Netanyahu's government of failing to crack down on the worsening crime levels in Arab society.
Those who appointed the far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir as police minister "do not want to protect us," Elhai said.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid called Ben-Gvir a "pathetic racist and a total failure" during a speech in Karkur in the north of the country.
The opposition's goal is to "fight until this government falls," Lapid said.
Since the start of the year, 156 people have been killed by violence in the Arab sector, according to media reports, more than twice as many as in the same period last year.
The Arab minority makes up about 20% of Israel's population of nearly 10 million.
For more than six months, there have been massive protests in Israel against government policies, mostly focusing on a highly controversial judicial reform that critics say threatens to undermine Israel's democracy.
Despite the protests, the coalition passed a law that restricts the Supreme Court's ability to act in July.
The Supreme Court is to consider petitions against the law on September 12.