The meeting at the Israeli defence ministry was tense.

Sitting across the table from Benjamin Netanyahu were leaders of Israel’s Druze community, an Arabic speaking minority group of around 150,000.

The Druze sheikhs and former army officers had come to discuss a divisive nationality law pushed through by Mr Netanyahu’s government.

But when the talk turned to a comment one of the Druze had made about Israel becoming an “apartheid state”, the prime minister reportedly walked out in anger.

The aborted meeting on Thursday was just one flare up amid ongoing tensions between the Israeli government and the country’s most loyal minority group.

Tens of thousands of Druze and their supporters rallied in central Tel Aviv Saturday to protest the new law they say makes them second-class citizens.

Holding colourful Druze flags alongside Israeli ones, protestors at Saturday's demonstration, estimated by local media at over 50,000, chanted "equality".