Elad Einav planned to be at his desk early Wednesday morning for his first day of work at a new job at a high-tech company in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ra'anana. Instead, the 39-year-old found himself stuck in traffic at 8:30 A. M. at a highway junction on Route 4 between Ra'anana and the suburb to its east, Kfar Sava. The intersection was swarmed by more than 1,000 demonstrators protesting the Netanyahu government’s plans to curb the independence of the country's judiciary. Wednesday's nationwide protest, which organizers have dubbed a National Day of Disruption , is the latest in a series of a regular mass demonstrations around the country since legislation that would put the government's plans into practice were introduced into the Knesset. The protesters brought the Ra'anana junction to a standstill as they marched, waving Israeli flags and chanting “Save Democracy!” and “We, the majority, are taking to the streets!” “It’s OK with me. I just called my new boss and told him I would be late,” Einav remarked. “It’s for a good cause. I’m not upset. ” He pulled out an Israeli flag that a protester had given him and waved it out his car window as he waited. He said that he also knew that a protest against the judicial overhaul was planned for the high-tech sector for noon near his new office and instead of taking a lunch break, he hoped to join it. Not all of Eliav’s fellow commuters in the traffic jam, which stretched for kilometers along Route 4, were as forgiving. Some got out of their cars and implored the handful of police at the scene to do something to free up traffic. “Why aren’t you arresting them?” one furious man asked a young policewoman after sitting in traffic for nearly half an hour. “Why should I have to suffer because of a protest against the government?” Another stranded commuter, Nehemia Stern, who wore a skullcap and had a beard, was trying to get to his job as a teacher at an Orthodox school in Ra'anana. He said he felt "more pain about the situation of the people demonstrating here than I do about being late for work. It hurts me that leftists feel so threatened right now that they have to resort to this. ” Judicial reform, he said, is necessary to restore balance to the courts, where he said that the sentiments and sensitivities of the country's religious population weren’t represented. “I think it should be done through discussion and compromise – though not compromise at any price. " As he sat in his car in the middle of the intersection, Stern was approached by demonstrators from Ra'anana whom he knew and who chatted with him. “They're good people,” he said. “No one here is evil. ” The protesters, most of whom were from Ra'anana and Kfar Sava, were of a range of ages and included entire families. Irit Tal brought her two children, Adi and Shir, who are university students, along with Adi's girlfriend, Eden. They stood in the middle of the intersection, clapping and chanting. "I think we're stronger when we all stand together against this government coup," Irit said. "I’m already retired, but I’m fighting this battle for my children’s future. ” Standing nearby on a sidewalk, Menachem and Ziva Sharp, both 65, are identifiably Orthodox. He wore a knitted skullcap and she had her hair covered and was wearing a skirt. Both also sported T-shirts with the slogan “Religious. Zionist. Democratic. ” “We have to have balance in government to protect the weak – and the vulnerable in this country are only protected by a strong judiciary. It’s a stand that I take from a moral Jewish perspective, not a political one,” said Menachem Sharp, an immigrant from Australia. He said that while he understood that his views are in the minority in his Orthodox community, he had the backing of a national organization of Orthodox citizens who oppose the government's judicial overhaul. The opposition, he said, is “out of a Jewish commitment to prioritizing the oppressed and the understanding that the way to do that in the modern world is through the courts. ” Ziva Sharp noted that while she and her husband were committed to showing up to demonstrate, she was less comfortable with the disruptive tactics of Wednesday's nationwide protest and didn’t like the fact that traffic was being hindered. “I think this method is causing unnecessary alienation against the protest. There’s a reason we're standing on the sidewalk. ”.