Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in hospital after being fitted with a pacemaker on Sunday, as tens of thousands of people converged on Jerusalem to protest a planned overhaul of the Supreme Court being debated in parliament.

With Israel embroiled in its most serious domestic political crisis in decades, the 73-year-old leader was rushed to Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv on Saturday after a heart monitor implanted a week earlier in what was described as a dehydration episode detected a “temporary arrhythmia”, his doctors said.

The pacemaker procedure went smoothly and Netanyahu was expected to be discharged later on Sunday, his office said, adding that trips planned to Cyrus and Turkey would be rescheduled.

That should give him enough time to take part in the final vote in parliament on Monday on a key element of his highly contested judicial overhaul, which has ignited months of nationwide protests and concern abroad over Israel’s democratic health.

Netanyahu’s coalition with a clutch of nationalist and religious parties has been determined to push ahead with plans that would curb the Supreme Court’s power to overrule government actions on legal grounds, arguing that the court has become too politically interventionist.

Lawmakers on Sunday began debating a bill to limit the court’s ability to void decisions made by the government and ministers it deems “unreasonable”. The result of Monday’s vote could come as soon as that evening.

Critics say the amendment is being rushed through parliament and will open the door to abuses of power by removing one of the few effective checks on the executive’s authority in a country without a formal written constitution.

Supporters say opponents of the bill want to override the will of the majority that voted Netanyahu’s government into power last year, and the battle has opened up deep divisions in Israeli society.

‘WE’RE SCARED, WE’RE ANGRY’

The crisis has spread to the military, with hundreds of volunteer army reservists threatening not to show up for service if the government continues with the plans, and former military and security chiefs warning that national security was at risk.

Tens of thousands of Israelis opposing the judicial changes marched to Jerusalem over the weekend, carrying flags and beating drums under a scorching summer sun. Many pitched tents in a park near the Knesset.

“We’re worried, we’re scared, we’re angry. We’re angry that people are trying to change this country, trying to create a democratic backslide. But we’re also very, very hopeful,” Tzivia Guggenheim, 24 and a student in Jerusalem, said outside her tent.

Across town in the Old City, hundreds of protesters gathered near the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, singing and dancing in circles.

The furore over the judiciary has contributed to strains in relations with the U.S., as have surging Israeli-Palestinian violence and progress in Iran’s nuclear programme.

Washington has urged Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption charges he denies, to seek broad agreements over any judicial reforms.

First elected to Israel’s top office in 1996, Netanyahu has been both dynamic and polarising.

He spearheaded a free-market revolution in Israel, while showing distrust of internationally backed peacemaking with the Palestinians and world powers’ negotiations to cap Iran’s nuclear programme.

In early October, a few weeks before winning a national election, Netanyahu fell ill during the Jewish fast of Yom Kippur and was briefly hospitalised.

Hundreds of people took to the streets in Botswana’s capital of Gaborone on Saturday to protest against legislation seeking to make same-sex relations legal.

Backed by religious groups, the demonstrators marched across the city to voice their opposition to a bill that aims to comply with a 2019 court ruling in favour of LGBTQ rights.

Some held signs reading “we say no homosexuality” and “protect our children”.

The bill “would open floodgates of immorality and abomination”, said Pastor Pulafela Mabiletswane Siele of the Evangelical Fellowships of Botswana, a Christian group, delivering a petition to the parliament.

“We urge our parliament to opt for a referendum regarding this matter,” Siele said.

The protest comes amid a wider pushback against LGBTQ rights in southern Africa.

Last week, thousands of people took to the streets in Malawi ahead of a constitutional court case challenging the country’s ban on same-sex relationships.

Lawmakers in Namibia have backed legislation to ban same-sex marriage and punish its supporters, following a Supreme Court ruling that allowed for the recognition of some unions contracted abroad.

Botswana’s High Court in 2019 ruled in favour of campaigners seeking to strike down jail sentences for same-sex relationships, declaring the punishment to be unconstitutional.

The government sought to revoke the ruling but lost in appeal in 2021.

Gay sex had been banned since 1965 in the socially conservative African nation, where offenders could face up to seven years in prison.

The bill that is expected to be discussed in the coming weeks removes the related provisions from the penal code.

Receiving the petition on behalf of parliament, opposition lawmaker Wynter Mmolotsi said MPs would take into consideration the views of the church.

“We worry that religion and faith are being weaponised to distort the message of the church which is to encourage love and restoration,” Botswana’s LGBTQ rights group LEGABIBO said in a statement earlier this month.