It's not often that you get a parliamentary vote that can change the fate and character of a nation.

On Monday, Israel held one of those votes.

And Israelis across the country took to the streets in anger.

The government had pushed through a controversial bill,

which would give them even more power by stopping the Supreme Court from challenging the laws they made.

It's led to furious riots, as some Israelis claim their country is slipping into dictatorship.

We are going into civil war now.

The government of Israel declared war on the people of Israel.

This is a major threat to the basic identity of what Israel is supposed to be.

How did the passing of one bill bring Israel to the brink?

And with a constitutional crisis looming over the country, what happens next?

You're listening to stories of our times from the times and the Sunday times.

I'm Manvin Rana.

Today is Israel on course to become a dictatorship.

I'm Angel Fefer and I'm a correspondent in Jerusalem.

Angel, take us back to the weekend. Take us back to Sunday.

Benjamin Netanyahu is in hospital having a pacemaker fitted.

And he's getting some important visits. He's getting a lot of warnings from a lot of important people in Israel.

What happened?

So the whole weekend was sort of a peak of both protests against the government that was a massive march.

A four-day march from Tel Aviv up to Jerusalem with tens of thousands of Israelis who were against Netanyahu's plans to weaken the Supreme Court.

There was open letters coming out from all types of officers saying that they wouldn't continue serving their reserved duty in the Israeli army.

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