Dozens were protesting outside the Israeli parliament, the Knesset in Jerusalem, urging the government to quit and call for fresh elections on Monday. Reports by Israeli newspapers Haaretz and Times of Israel said that the protesters said the government failed to rise to the occasion and accused them of abandoning the hostages.
Among those protesting were people who lost their loved ones in the October 7 Hamas attacks. “He is a narcissist who never thought about the security of the country and the security of his citizens,” Roni Goren Ben-Zvi, whose brother Yonatan Richter was murdered at the music festival which Hamas terrorists attacked, was quoted as saying by Haaretz.
“Elections now,” the protesters chanted sitting on the floor outside the Knesset. The organisers in their statement also said the government is dysfunctional and have damaged Israel’s international reputation. “Any hopes that the government would raise to the occasion of this time of emergency have been shattered by their failed actions, expressed by their dysfunction, the abandonment of the hostages, the fatal damage to Israel’s international reputation, their continued incitement and divisiveness and the diversion of budgets in favour of personal interests at the expense of the public as a whole,’ the protesters said in their statement.
“We came to the Knesset to demand elections now, the immediate replacement of the government, and the expulsion of the extremists,” their statement further added.
Police officers later removed the 40 or so protesters who blocked the parliament. One protester told the Haaretz that the government is being controlled by ‘extremists’.
“It cannot be that after 15 years of rule that brought us to this disaster, the government continues to be in power. This is a government that does not function and is controlled by extremists,” a protester named Noga Meshulam was quoted as saying by Haaretz.
A section of the Israeli population has criticised Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the October 7 attacks. They also have criticised the rhetoric of Israeli security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, Netanyahu’s allies from the far-right Jewish National Front and National Union–Tkuma, respectively.
A poll by the Maariv newspaper released in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks showed that at least 49% Israelis want National Unity party leader Benny Gantz to take over the role of the Israeli Prime Minister with only 28% backing Netanyahu.
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