After Rome and Berlin, Benjamin Netanyahu continues in London, Friday, March 24, his diplomatic offensive to try to convince Western countries to oppose a return to the agreement on the nuclear program of Iran, Israel's number one enemy.

But his trip to the United Kingdom comes in a very tense context in Israel, where a justice reform project that aims to limit the prerogatives of the Supreme Court is deeply divisive. In London, too, the Israeli prime minister was greeted Friday near 10 Downing Street by hundreds of demonstrators gathered to protest against his controversial reform project.

Since the announcement of the plan in early January by one of the most right-wing governments in Israel's history, massive protests have taken place every week in the country.

>> Read: In Israel, an influential think tank behind controversial judicial reform

In London, hundreds of people carrying Israeli flags demonstrated outside Downing Street on Friday morning, as Benjamin Netanyahu was greeted by Rishi Sunak, shouting "shame, shame, shame" in Hebrew and English.

"Roadmap" between the UK and Israel

"I think Netanyahu is taking control of the Supreme Court to make Israel a dictatorship and we have to oppose it as strongly as possible," Alon, an Israeli in his fifties living in London, told AFP.

Dozens of demonstrators waving Palestinian flags also demonstrated to protest Israel's "occupation" in the Palestinian territories.

Several Western countries, including the United States and Germany, have expressed concerns about the reform plan, as has the Israeli president himself, who warned last week of the risk of "civil war".

>> Détente between Saudi Arabia and Iran: Israeli dream of anti-Iranian front recedes

The United Kingdom has not publicly reacted to the controversial reform and signed on Tuesday a "roadmap" intended to strengthen the long-term partnership between the two countries, particularly in the fields of tech and security.

"The United Kingdom and Israel are also standing together, challenging Iran's malign influence in the region and the broad scourge of anti-Semitism," British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said Tuesday.

The "roadmap" also states that the UK intends to cooperate with Israel to "address the disproportionate attention paid to Israel in the United Nations and other international bodies".

With AFP

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