Anti-overhaul activists block a road during a protest against the government's judicial overhaul, near the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, on July 24, 2023. (Flash90/Jamal Awad)
They demanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ouster for not yet freeing the 132 hostages remaining in Gaza.
By Vered Weiss World Israel News
Israeli police had to disperse and forcibly move dozens of protesters who blocked the roads around the Knesset Monday morning, as reported by The Times of Israel.
Over a hundred demonstrators turned up to demand Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ouster for not yet freeing the 132 hostages remaining in Gaza.
The protesters called the coalition members “traitors who have given up on the hostages.”
Although the police had initially given permission for the demonstration, when members of the crowd moved past the barricades and began intentionally blocking traffic, they intervened.
As the police dragged away people blocking the roads the crowds called them “criminals who have destroyed the country.”
Although the massacre of October 7th put an end to the anti-government protests that had been raging the past summer over proposed judicial overhaul, demonstrations against the government have returned featuring criticism of the hostage crisis and the handling of the war.
One of the protesters Mor Shamgar said she used to vote Likud but no longer supported Netanyahu.
Discussing the Prime Minister’s sons, she said, “If Yair Netanyahu were to help clean up in Be’eri, or if Avner Netanyahu went to Kfar Aza to help pick fruits and vegetables” she might change her opinion of the Prime Minister.
“Until then he’s not worthy,” she concluded.
Outgoing Labor party head Merav Michaeli also attended the demonstration but left when protesters began blocking the streets.
Michaeli said that the Labor Party was planning a no-confidence vote “to move this government.”
Michaeli told The Times of Israel, “The return of the hostages is not a question, it is the number one obligation of this government.”
She added, “The hostages were abandoned and kidnapped on its watch, and so it has to do everything to return them.”
Although Labor did not make the no-confidence motion, Michaeli insisted, “For 108 days we have seen that this government is busy with everything… but the hostages.”
In a joint statement, the coalition said, it would “not take part in political shows during wartime.”
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