By Zo Haderekh
Thousands of peace activists marched and more than a dozen were arrested in demonstrations against Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government this weekend. Opponents of Netanyahu and “his” war gathered for protests in at least 30 locations across Israel, including in Tel-Aviv, Haifa, Be’er Sheva, Jerusalem, Umm al-Fahem, and more.
Anti-government protesters in Tel Aviv broke through a police barrier and blocked main traffic-arteries while chanting the need for immediate elections to remove the Netanyahu government. Police confronted the demonstrators, using force to disperse them. The clash followed two separate rallies, each drawing many thousands of participants, held roughly a block apart, near the Israeli army headquarters at Begin Street.
An anti-government demonstration was staged on Kaplan Street—the main site of last year’s massive protests against the far-right government. The second rally focused on the retrieval of hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 and was held at the plaza outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, as was the case for the past 22 weeks. The space is now known as “Hostages Square”.
At the end of the anti-government rally, hundreds of protesters smashed the police barrier on Begin Street and continued northward, carrying torches. They blocked that road, blowing whistles and horns and calling for immediate elections before being forcefully scattered by police using water cannons. Six demonstrators were detained by security agents.
About 20,000 demonstrators came to Kaplan Street, including activists from the “Anti-Occupation Bloc”, a coalition opposing the Israeli military’s occupation of Palestinian territories. Thousands attended another two rallies in Jerusalem, outside the Prime Minister’s Residence, and in Haifa. Speakers at both protests criticized the Netanyahu government’s war policies, and its corruption.
Led by Hadash (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality) and Communist Party of Israel activists, several hundred held also held another protest, this one in Umm al-Fahem city, also against the Gaza war, demanding an immediate ceasefire. The demonstration was unprecedented because Israeli authorities have cracked down on any show of support for Gaza from Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Umm al-Fahem is the second-largest Arab community in Israel. During the first days of the war in October, police violently broke up a similar demonstration in the city, arresting at least 12 people. One of those arrested was the human rights lawyer Ahmad Khalifa, who was only released in February after 110 days in prison.
In November, the Israeli High Court enforced a ban on protests in the city, even as they allowed predominantly Jewish protests against the war elsewhere in the country. Last Saturday morning, a joint protest was held by Arab and Jewish women at the Taybeh Junction, led by TANDI (Movement of Democratic Women in Israel), ahead of a meeting to celebrate International Women’s Day. (IPA Service)
Courtesy: People’s World
