The country's government has caused turmoil by passing the first part of a new and highly controversial set of laws limiting the power of the Supreme Court to overrule government actions.

There have been angry protests on the streets on Jerusalem, while the Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has appeared on Israeli television saying he was willing to delay the new law for now in the interests of national unity.

Ed Butler speaks to the Histadrut, The General Federation of Labour in Israel, which had threatened a general strike if the law was passed.