Photo :‘This Government Is Taking Us Bad Places’: Israel’s Protest Movements Are Back on the Streets
By Bar Peleg
Families of hostages held in Gaza announce escalation in fight for hostage release deal as police enforce special measures against thousands demonstrating across Israel against Netanyahu’s government . They are calling for early election and vowed ‘to to Immediately remove Netanyahu from power’
Tel – Aviv- Protests against the Israeli government and in support of releasing the hostages being held in Gaza are taking place on Saturday night in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Be’er Sheva, Caesarea, and other cities.
20 hostages’ families vow to remove PM Netanyahu from power : ‘He’s the obstacle to a hostage deal’, they said
Ahead of the main anti-government protest in Tel Aviv, family members of the hostages gathered early Saturday evening for a special media address.
Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is being held in Gaza, said that they “are forced today to begin a new phase in our just fight, from this moment on, we will take action to immediately remove [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] from power.”
“After you abandoned our family members on October 7, after 176 days in which you failed to secure a hostage release deal, and because you are constantly torpedoing this deal – it is clear that you are the obstacle preventing this deal,” added Zangauker.
Protesters carry placards demanding a Hostage Deal , during a rally called for by relatives of Israeli hostages held in Gaza. Source: AFP / Jack Guez
The main protest on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv is taking place amid warning letters sent on Friday by the Tel Aviv District Police Commander to several prominent demonstrators.
In the letters titled “Imminent Risk to Human Life,” the district commander warned the demonstrators against blocking roads and setting tires on fire. In recent weeks, clashes have occurred between police officers and demonstrators over attempts to block Begin Road and Ayalon Highway in central Tel Aviv.
Yasmin Porat, who escaped from Pessi Cohen’s house in Kibbutz Be’eri before it was shelled, joined the anti-government protest in Tel Aviv and said that “For six months the government, which has the blood of my partner and thousands of others who were murdered on its hands, has been waging this cursed war. What are they thinking? That they’ll take 134 coffins out of Gaza and declare victory?”
“Without the hostages there is no victory, and there will be no hope for the country. Only when the last hostage is here will the State of Israel be resurrected … This is the most important struggle in the history of the country,” continued Porat.
The weekly demonstration of the Hostage Families Forum took place simultaneous to the anti-government protests Saturday night at the Hostages Square, outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. After 20 minutes of fiery speeches, the family members and freed hostages implored the audience to take action: To take to the streets and make their voices heard. The crowd was directed to the Israeli army’s military HQ in Tel Aviv and Dizengoff Street in the city center.
The police had prepared Saturday in Tel Aviv with reinforced forces ahead of the expected protests, and Begin Road was blocked by police. Lawmaker Gilad Kariv took to the microphone at the protest outside the military headquarters in Tel Aviv and asked police to remove the trucks from Begin Road and allow people to join the protest.
Last week, 15 demonstrators were arrested during protests in the city, and four demonstrators, including two relatives of hostages, were detained in Tel Aviv for blocking a road. According to protest organizations’ records, around 120 demonstrators were arrested, detained, or investigated in February and March.
At the Tel Aviv protest, calling for early elections, speakers will include Einav Zangauker, the mother of Matan, a hostage in Gaza; Haaretz columnist and former Israeli Consul in New York, Alon Pinkas; and an evacuated resident of Israel’s north. After the demonstration, the organizers plan to call from the stage for participants to protest at the gates of the Israeli defense ministry complex, alongside some families of hostages who will demonstrate there.
Hundreds gathered early Saturday evening outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in the Israeli town of Caesarea, demanding to hold an election ahead of its planned date.
Ex-IDF intelligence chief Amos Malka said at the Caesarea demonstration that “Netanyahu’s destructive mindset requires a declaration of cognitive and leadership incapacity,” adding that every additional day the prime minister remains in office poses “a clear and immediate risk” to Israel’s security.
“For a whole week, Netanyahu is only concerned with the draft-dodging law to preserve the coalition, not with kidnappings, not with the day after, and not with the American initiative,” added Malka.
Hundreds of protesters marched towards central Haifa calling for a hostage release deal. Noam Dan, a relative of hostage Ofer Kalderon, said at the protest that “For 176 days we have insisted on real change, to be rescued, for responsibility to be taken. I’ve spoken nicely and politely, and I’ve spoken angrily … I realized that nothing would help our hostages.”
“We need agreements that will save lives, revenge is not a work plan,” continued Dan, adding that “we have 176 reasons to remove Netanyahu from power and save ourselves from ourselves.”
Fighter pilot Col. (res.) Nir Yarkoni said that “Netanyahu is dangerous not only for the hostages, but … for the existence of the State of Israel” and added that “the most efficient and safe way to return the hostages alive is to replace the prime minister immediately.”
“Emergency times call for emergency measures to be taken. We will not survive [until elections next year] … The hostages will not survive until then,” Yarkoni added.
At Be’er Sheva, speakers will include a Bedouin-Israeli city council member, and a Knesset Member from the opposition party Yesh Atid.
On Sunday, the major protest organizations are expected to demonstrate in Jerusalem, and some of them will camp in tents near the Knesset. In the evening hours, the demonstrators are expected to march to the prime minister’s residence on Azza Street in the city center
Haaretz
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