Thousands across Israel rallied for the hostages’ release and against the government on Saturday night,
| ...only thousands? Usually they claim 100,00 or 200,000... |
| Just about everyone goes home for the big holiday dinner, except those who are about to be descended upon — it’s like Thanksgiving here. |
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
Strip since Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",’s October 7 massacre.
"It is incomprehensible that we have come to this holiday that represents freedom, and they [the hostages] aren’t here," said Tom Barkai, an organizer with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, to a solemn crowd in Jerusalem’s Gay Paree Square next to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence.
Hostage families protests in Tel Aviv, Haifa and dozens of other cities across the country echoed similar themes. In Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, many anti-government protesters merged with the Hostages Families Forum demonstrations, and vice versa, later in the night.
Recent weeks have seen an increasing convergence between the protests of the families and the mass anti-government demonstrations that were a weekly event in the months before October 7. Some of the families accuse Netanyahu of blocking a deal for political reasons.
In Jerusalem, hundreds convened outside the prime minister’s official residence around an hour after Shabbat’s end to demand a hostage deal.
Although speeches at weekly hostages’ rallies in Jerusalem tend to take a more critical tone towards Israel’s leadership than those in Tel Aviv, this particular evening took a turn when one of the speakers unequivocally called for the government’s ouster.
"The time for this government has run out, and they need to go," said Eyal Eshel, whose 19-year-old daughter Roni Eshel, an IDF lookout, was killed on the Gaza border during Hamas’s onslaught on October 7. "This is the time for new leadership."
The crowd met Eshel’s comments with enthusiastic agreement, chanting "shame" and demanding the prime minister’s resignation.
At the front of the march, protesters held a large banner with an excerpt from the hagaddah: "He [God] took us out from slavery to freedom, from sorrow to joy, from mourning to festival, from darkness to a great light, and from enslavement to redemption." Under the quote in bold, black letters, read the words, "Deal now!"
After the speeches ended, protesters in Jerusalem marched from Gay Paree Square to the President’s Residence for an anti-government protest organized by the group Safeguarding our Shared Home.
At an anti-government protest in Tel Aviv’s Democracy Square, Hagit and Ruby Chen, parents of slain IDF soldier Itay Chen, said that they had received a call from US President Joe
The Big GuyBiden
...46th president of the U.S. The very model of probity, except maybe for abandoning Afghanistan...after being notified last month that their son was killed on October 7 and his body held in Gaza, but they were never contacted by Netanyahu.
The protesters later congregated with the hostage families rally on Begin Street, and after organizers read out the names of all captives who remain the Gaza Strip, the unified group continued to march through some of Tel Aviv’s most bustling streets, urging bar-goers to join the demonstration.
Many protesters carried signs referencing the Passover Haggadah and the Four Questions, with one sign that read, "How is this government different from all others?"
Police dispersed the marchers at Dizengoff Center mall with light force, but made no arrests and issued no fines throughout the relatively calm night.
Further north, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid addressed an anti-government rally in Haifa on Saturday night, calling the government "a disaster that happened to the country."
The opposition leader added that he’s been asked why he has not joined the government amid the war and explained that he wants to get rid of the government rather than strengthen it.
"This is not the best that Israel can offer its citizens," he continued. "For the hostages, we need elections now."
In light of the upcoming Passover holiday, hostage rallies were held in 55 cities and towns across the country this week, all planned by the Families Forum.
At a protest outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea, a speaker lamented that nothing feels like a holiday right now, and "certainly not a festival of freedom, when 133 of our brothers and sisters have spent more than six months in the tunnels of Gaza where they are assaulted, starved and raped."
In Kfar Saba, speakers urged protesters to keep coming out to demonstrate, even during the Passover vacation. Demonstrators also gathered en masse in Beersheba, Rehovot, Ra’anana, Hod Hasharon, near Netanya and elsewhere.