The rule of law is being challenged as never before in the state of Israel. Ultra-Orthodox Jews are openly defying the authority of Israel's judicial institutions, and threatening "rebellion" against the Supreme Court, prompting Israel's President, Mr Ezer Weizman, to warn yesterday that the rule of law was under threat.
Ultra-Orthodox leaders are planning a massive demonstration in Jerusalem on Sunday to challenge the authority of the Supreme Court, whose president, Judge Aharon Barak, was accused by one ultra-Orthodox leader this week of running "a judicial dictatorship" and castigated by another as "a Jew-hater".
The assault on the authority of the courts is also being endorsed by some mainstream Orthodox Jewish leaders, and Israel's two chief rabbis, the official, state-backed representatives of Orthodox Judaism, have indicated that they might participate in Sunday's protest. Between them, ultra-Orthodox and mainstream Orthodox parties hold more than a fifth of the seats in the Israeli parliament.
At the heart of the protests are recent court decisions blocking state funding for ultra-Orthodox institutions, ordering Reform and Conservative Jewish representatives to be included in the city council bodies that administer local religious affairs, and chipping away at the traditional Orthodox hegemony on all matters relating to birth, marriage, divorce and death in the Jewish state.
"The judges, in their rulings, will trigger a rebellion," declared Rabbi Menachem Porush, a prominent ultra-Orthodox leader and former Knesset member. Some of Judge Barak's rulings, he said, reminded him "of the propaganda of Goebbels."
The divide between secular and Orthodox Israelis has long been one of Israel's most worrisome rifts: secular Jews deeply resent the fact that most ultra-Orthodox men are able to avoid military service, and many are subsidised by the state to study holy texts full-time.
Ultra-Orthodox groups, meanwhile, revile what they see as the godlessness of modern Israel, resist the opening of shops on the Sabbath, and would like to see the country governed according to the halachah - Jewish religious law - as derived from the Old Testament.
In the wake of the latest spate of criticisms of the Supreme Court, the Shin Bet security service has tightened security at the court building, and given Judge Barak and other judges more protection, including bodyguards.
Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, has defended the Supreme Court, but characterised the ultra-Orthodox attacks on it as the remarks of a minority. Mr Netanyahu is anxious not to alienate ultra-Orthodox voters whose backing he desperately needs in the elections due here in May.
In city elections last November ultra-Orthodox and Orthodox politicians won 15 of the 31 seats on Jerusalem's city council, and now dominate the city's government.