A senior Israeli politician has warned that the country is beginning to resemble a fascist state.

Isaac Herzog, chairman of the opposition Labour Party, said the government led by Benjamin Netanyahu was restricting more and more areas of society.

According to Ha’aretz, Mr Herzog told a public meeting in the city of Holon that Israeli politics were “undergoing a process of fascistisation. These are hard words but they are true.”

He said: “Artists, actors and playwrights are under threat, Supreme Court justices and judges generally are threatened, journalists are fired and are threatened, journalists and newspapers are under threat of being closed by the authorities, and now also academics are under threat and can say nothing,"

An an example he cited the proposed academic code of conduct, which would ban political speech by university professors in class.

 "This is how a country deteriorates," he told the audience, adding that at the next election, voters should back “a large and moderate political bloc that can replace the current regime and save Israel's democracy”.