Some demonstrators carried banners asking for a stop to the conflict in Gaza, while others carried posters calling for early elections.
Tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated against the government on Saturday night, demanding fresh elections and the release of the hostages held in Gaza, according to The Times of Israel.
One of the most well-known writers in Israel, David Grossman, presented a poem to demonstrators on Tel Aviv's Kaplan Street, urging them to go to the streets and fight for their nation.
"There's someone and something to fight for," he read. Such a gift from life is something we will never again have. It's time to get up and live now. Whether or not to be a people. To be human or not to be human... Everything is precarious.”
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, has been described by former Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin as "the worst and most failed prime minister in the history of the state." Diskin, the head of the Shin Bet intelligence agency from 2005 to 2011, insisted on holding elections as soon as feasible.
"I declined offers to participate in the demonstrations for a number of weeks. Diskin told The Times of Israel, "Something deep down me told me that it wasn't time at this point, that maybe it wasn't right to change governments throughout a war, and that unity was the most important thing."
"But I find myself astonished, every day, by the government's uselessness, the failed governance of the war, the lie of 'total victory,' the total evasion of responsibility, the collapse of our strategic relations with the United States, and potentially most of all, missing every opportunity to return our kidnapped relatives and friends, who continue to languish in Hamas captivity in Gaza," he said.
On King George Street, in front of Beit Jabotinsky, the location of the governing Likud party's headquarters, there was a demonstration. While some demonstrators carried banners asking for a stop to the conflict in Gaza, others carried posters calling for early elections.
A few demonstrators remained after the main event and blocked the route while setting fire to tires. According to The Times of Israel, mounted police officers intervened to break up the gathering, clear the roadway, and take three demonstrators into custody.
Video footage showed police galloping into the throng and using their horses to push demonstrators back. While other demonstrators tried to stop the police from injuring individuals who were being pushed, some persons seemed to be being pushed about by them.
Gilad Kariv, a Labor politician, was among the demonstrators. He yelled at the mounted police to get off the sidewalks and threatened to have them arrested for using their weapons.
In the meanwhile, organizers of the biggest Saturday night demonstration there since October 7 said that hundreds of people demonstrated outside Israel PM Netanyahu's home on Azza Street.
Marching along King George Street, demonstrators led by relatives of Hamas captives called for an immediate agreement and early elections. The demonstrators said that Netanyahu's administration had deserted Israel's beleaguered northern villages, where 60,000 people had been forced to flee their homes for over eight months as a result of Hezbollah bombardment.
Following their arrival outside Netanyahu's home, the protesters took part in a combined demonstration led by the city's anti-government group, Safeguarding our Shared Home, and the local chapter of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
Furthermore, the captives and Missing Families Forum organized nationwide demonstrations including speeches from captives who Hamas freed in November. Not all 116 of the hostages taken by Hamas on October 7 are thought to still be alive and are believed to be in Gaza.
Hamas has said time and time again that it would only free captives if a comprehensive agreement is reached to end the conflict. Israel has turned down the request.
In the meanwhile, hundreds of people gathered in Tel Aviv to commemorate captive Naama Levy's 20th birthday. To the sound of drums, the demonstrators yelled and let go of balloons. They insisted on the captives' release while they enjoyed bite-sized cupcakes adorned with birthday candles.
According to Yoni Levy, Naama Levy's father, "She needs to be here with her family, with her friends." The Times of Israel said that a Hamas video that showed Levy being yanked by her hair from the rear of a black pickup vehicle and then shoved into the back seat surfaced on Telegram after Naama's kidnapping from the Nahal Oz military installation. Her wrists were bound, her feet were exposed, and she had blood and filth all over her clothes in the video.
For months, protestors opposing the government's conduct of the war—which started on October 7 when terrorists from Hamas invaded southern Israel, murdering 1,200 people and kidnapping 251—have been gathering every Saturday night.
No comments:
Post a Comment