The demonstrations follow the recent arrest of an associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others suspected of leaking classified information
Protests calling for the release of hostages held in Gaza and against the government took place across Israel on Saturday night. The demonstrations follow the recent arrest of an associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other individuals suspected of leaking classified information that could hinder the war effort.
Protests were held on Begin Road in Tel Aviv, at Hostage Square near the Tel Aviv Museum, as well as in Jerusalem, Caesarea, Be’er Sheva, Karkur and other locations.
Representatives of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum spoke outside the Kirya military compound in Tel Aviv ahead of the protest, saying the government was running “a cruel information campaign” against a deal. Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan, accused Netanyahu of working to prevent a deal, referencing the arrest of the alleged leakers. “Classified and manipulated information was passed from Netanyahu’s circle to foreign media to prop up Netanyahu’s false propaganda aimed at torpedoing a deal… Netanyahu, you have betrayed the hostages and betrayed us,” she said.
Zangauker called on cabinet ministers and the defense establishment to refuse to allow Netanyahu to be involved in the hostages issue. Danny Elgart, brother of hostage Yitzhak Elgart, called on the Shin Bet security service to fully investigate the suspicions of “deliberate undermining and sabotage of the goals of the war,” adding, “As we have been shouting for months, Netanyahu was and remains the only obstacle to a deal.”
Amir Idan – the brother of Guy Idan, who was killed in Lebanon, and cousin of hostage Tzachi Idan – spoke at Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square, saying that Guy went to fight to free Tzachi. “I’m here to say as clearly as possible, my family will continue from the point where Guy stopped – we’ll take to the street to say, ‘save them from that horror!’” he said.
Noam, Tzachi’s sister, also spoke at the protest, noting that much had happened since the last time she addressed the weekly rally, including the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and many soldiers, but that the worst part was the apathy toward the hostages. “We’ll break down these walls of apathy and bring our loved ones home,” she said.
Freed hostage Maya Regev told the crowd that hostage’s Omer Shem Tov’s birthday was two days ago, and that she thinks about him often. “How does he sleep? How does he eat? How does he breathe without his inhaler?” she said.
Ilan Dalal, father of Guy Gilboa-Dalal, who was abducted from the Nova Musical Festival, said, “A year ago, my son and three friends went to a party. None of them came back. Now it’s clear that the only way to get our brothers and sisters back from the Hamas tunnels is a deal that will bring everyone home at once.
“Stop talking about partial deals that’ll keep some of them in Gaza,” he added. “It creates arguments and divides the nation. We need a real deal and to leave Gaza. This month, 87 Israelis have been killed and many more injured, civilians and soldiers, in war and in terror attacks.”
Ayelet Levy Shachar, the mother of hostage soldier Naama Levy, was joined on the stage by girls dressed like Levy when she was taken hostage, wearing black shirts, stained sweatpants and with blood painted on their arms and faces. “The normality that goes on without her is insufferable… Don’t let this reality become the norm,” she said. “We call on the rest of the public to take to the streets, end this abandonment and gain back our values.
Noam Katz, the daughter of Lior Rudaeff, whose death in Hamas captivity has been determined, said she wanted to address Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, who is a child psychologist. “I want to know how to raise mentally healthy children, but how can I when they ask me why they killed grandpa?” She said her seven-year-old son asked her if Rudaeff was shot in the head or in the heart, and her five-year-old said he thought it was both, because they wanted him to die.
Ronen Neutra, father of American-Israeli hostage Omer Neutra, said none of the skill Israel has used against Hamas and Iran is being used to bring his and his wife’s son back. Instead, he says, they had to fight by themselves.
Orna Neutra, Omer’s mother, said, “Our son did the right thing. He volunteered to protect life, which is sacred. He knew that if something were to happen to him, he would not be left behind. That is the Israeli ethos… I wonder about humanity, the moral compass of the world…how are the women, the children, the elderly, how are they not home yet?”
‘The war will be the end of us’
Over 1,000 anti-war protesters gathered in Habima Square in central Tel Aviv for an “emergency” demonstration calling for an immediate end to the fighting in Gaza and Lebanon. The organizers put out a call to protest because “if we don’t end the war, the war will be the end of us.”
Alon Lee Green, co-director of the Arab-Jewish Standing Together movement said on stage, “We can’t say that we didn’t know, we can’t say it isn’t happening. Only three days ago, 100 people were killed in one bombing, on one building in Beit Lahia. Does anybody think that this will bring us security? That this will make our life better? Absolutely not.”
Green added, “This is all the work of the racist clan that rules us, the Israeli Ku Klux Klan.”
He criticized the Israeli opposition for staying silent as the government “commits war crimes in the name of annexation” and resettling Gaza with Israelis. “Israeli members of the Knesset, from The Democrats party, from the Labor, where are you?” he called, “Where is Yair Golan? Where is Naama Lazimi? Where is Gilad Kariv?”
There was no protest held in Haifa in northern Israel for the sixth consecutive week, due to gathering restrictions based on the Home Front Command’s guidelines.
Haaretz
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