‘Day of Resistance’: How many protesters actually showed up?

Media reports thousands – not hundreds of thousands and not even tens of thousands – at daytime protest events across the country.

By Atara Beck, World Israel News

Over the past several months, hundreds of thousands of protesters against the Netanyahu government’s judicial reforms have been demonstrating every Saturday night and often in between, including more than one “Day of Disruption” that caused chaos throughout the country.

Talks between the two sides, mediated by President Isaac Herzog, failed, and on Monday night, the Knesset advanced a bill to restrict the ‘reasonableness’ standard by the Supreme Court by a vote of 64-56.

Opposition MKs and prominent activists had threatened to shut down the country the following day, having organized a “Day of Resistance” to the reforms. Protest groups released a statement pledging to “stop the country from functioning.”

However, the size of the daytime protests appears to have been smaller than anticipated. Despite the disruptions, such as the standstill in traffic on all major highways throughout the country and the ruckus at Ben-Gurion Airport, media has reported thousands of protesters in Tel Aviv and other cities – a modest number compared to previous demonstrations that attracted hundreds of thousands.

Indeed, already last month it was noted that the anti-reform protests were “losing steam,” despite calls by the likes of former prime minister Ehud Barak for civil revolt. As reported at the time by JNS, “Barak’s call comes as anti-reform movement organizers admit that demonstrations are losing momentum, as revealed by Channel 14. The television outlet obtained texts from a ‘closed and secret’ WhatsApp group of leading protest organizers, 16 in all, which included Barak, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and former IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz.”

While police would not provide estimates to JNS on the number of protesters on Tuesday, it noted that there appeared to be significantly fewer participants than in previous demonstrations held over the past few months.

At least 77 people were arrested, including famous Israeli singer Aviv Geffen. Three police officers were injured.

“The whole country is in one big traffic jam right now, but this is just a preview for the big protest that will [occur] this evening in Kaplan [Street in Tel Aviv],” one of the 2,000 protesters blocking Road 4 told Ynet.

Thousands – or perhaps tens of thousands, depending on the various reports – packed Kaplan Street as evening approached, yet nothing out of the ordinary happened.