Major demonstrations are organized across the country to demand the departure of the Prime Minister. Among the protesters, the Israeli left, rallied by relatives of hostages demanding their release.
Slogans, caricatures and banners. Tens of thousands of people demonstrated against Benjamin Netanyahu this Saturday April 6 in Israel. A massive protest movement whose culmination will be a major mobilization this Sunday in Jerusalem.
This Sunday, April 7, marks six months of Hamas attacks against Israel where 1,170 people were killed and some 250 kidnapped, of whom around 130 are still missing. 34 of them are presumed dead by the Israeli army.
As the country enters its seventh month of war in the Gaza Strip, the protest movement against the Israeli Prime Minister is growing.
Request for new elections
According to the organizers, 100,000 people gathered in Tel Aviv this Saturday evening. Demonstrators showed caricatures of Benjamin Netanyahu, compared to drug trafficker Pablo Escobar, brandished banners marked “Crime Minister” and chanted slogans hostile to the leader of the Likud (right) implicated in several legal proceedings, notably for corruption.
For these demonstrators, the person responsible for the death of the hostage found this Saturday is Benjamin Netanyahu. The four Israeli soldiers killed in the Gaza Strip on the same day were also the Prime Minister.
The demonstrators, a broad spectrum of the Israeli left, are demanding the resignation of Benjamin Netanyahu and the holding of elections without delay.
Relatives of hostages also mobilized
The demonstrators then joined other protesters demanding a negotiated solution for the release of the hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza. They believe that the government is not doing enough to establish a ceasefire to organize their release.
These different protest groups joined together are growing the protest movement against the Prime Minister. The latter, however, still benefits from the support of a large section of his Likud party and the far right who form his government.
Clashes
Demonstrations were also held in around fifty other localities. In Caesarea, north of Tel Aviv, clashes broke out between police and demonstrators who tried to approach the private residence of Benjamin Netanyahu, and one person was arrested, according to Israeli media.
Speaking during a demonstration in Kfar Saba, northeast of Tel Aviv, the leader of the opposition, the centrist Yaïr Lapid, also called for new legislative elections.
“They have learned nothing. They have not changed. As long as we do not send them away, they will not allow this country to move forward,” he said before flying to Washington to meet senior American officials.