[KurtFF8]

Source

Tens of thousands of people across Israel joined the families of hostages this weekend to protest against the government and call for the removal of Benjamin Netanyahu, as the Israeli prime minister grappled with one of the most serious threats yet to his coalition.

The protesters in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Be’er Sheva, Caesarea and other cities on Saturday – and at a further demonstration outside the Knesset in Jerusalem on Sunday – demanded the release of those still held captive in Gaza after close to six months, and labelled Netanyahu an “obstacle to the deal”, vowing to persist until he leaves power.

“It’s been 176 days that I haven’t turned a blind eye to the thoughts and fear of what Liri and the other abductees are going through,” said Shira Albag, the mother of one hostage, Liri Albag. “The people of Israel won’t forget or forgive anyone who prevents a deal that would bring them [the hostages] back to us. After 176 days, 4,224 hours, the excuses have run out.”

Raz Ben-Ami, a former hostage freed nearly two months ago, said: “They [the hostages] won’t last there; no one can survive what they go through there, believe me.”
Netanyahu is entering the most precarious week for his coalition since the war began as a deadline imposed by the Israeli supreme court to end the exemption for ultra-Orthodox men from military conscription is reached on Monday. The issue divides the coalition between rightwing religious and secular parties, who want to see conscription shared more equally among Jewish Israelis.

At a press conference on Sunday evening, shortly after it was announced that he was to be sedated for surgery on a hernia discovered during a routine examination, Netanyahu said Israel would press ahead with an offensive against Rafah, where half of Gaza’s population is estimated to be sheltering, and he said a combination of military pressure and flexibility in talks would bring about the release of hostages.

The nationwide protests also coincided with reports from the Egyptian TV station Al-Qahera, known for its ties to the country’s intelligence services, indicating that negotiations for a truce between Israel and Hamas were scheduled to resume in Cairo. A Hamas official told Agence France-Presse that it had not made a decision on whether to send a delegation.

An Israeli airstrike on Sunday hit a tent camp in the courtyard of a crowded hospital in central Gaza, killing two Palestinians and injuring another 15, including journalists working nearby. Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday that at least 32,782 Palestinians had been killed since the start of the war, including 77 whose bodies had been brought to hospitals over the last 24 hours.

In further signs of spreading tensions within Israel, emergency services said a member of the country’s Arab minority stabbed three soldiers at a bus stop in the southern city of Beersheba on Sunday before one of them shot him dead. Hours later, a knife-wielding Palestinian was shot dead after wounding three people in a shopping mall in nearby Gan Yavne, Israeli media said.

The war was triggered in October when Hamas killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in an attack in southern Israel. The militant Islamist organisation also abducted about 250 people. Israel believes about 130 of these remain in Gaza, including 34 who are presumed dead.
Thousands of people gathered in front of the Knesset in Jerusalem on Sunday to protest against the government and call for Netanyahu’s removal as prime minister. Yaacov Godo, whose son Tom was killed by Hamas on 7 October, said: “I will camp here in front of the Knesset until the PM resigns.”

Naama Lazimi, a member of the Knesset (MK) for the centre-left Labor party who was at the demonstration, said people had come out to protest because they recognised that the government was failing.

“The people of Israel were deep in sorrow and pain after 7 October, that is why it took so long, but when they understood there is no other option, this government is not functioning and is hurting us economically, diplomatically, in our security and in our values […] that is why people are out,” she said.

“You need to trust the people of Israel. This government will go, but the people of Israel are sane, a good people and we will win this.”

The families of hostages have urged ministers, including Netanyahu’s political rival and war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, to unite with other MKs in removing Netanyahu from power, accusing the PM of deliberately sabotaging efforts to secure the release of their relatives.

“If the families knew how small the gap is, which Netanyahu is refusing to close in negotiations with Hamas, they would explode,” said Amos Malka, a former head of the Israel Defense Forces’ military intelligence directorate who was among the speakers at the rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday.

Einav Zangauker, the mother of Matan Zangauker, who is still held in Gaza, said Netanyahu’s handling of the hostages situation had been “incomprehensible and criminal”.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu, after you abandoned our families on 7 October, and after 176 days when you didn’t bring a deal [for their return], and because you are continually engaged in torpedoing a deal, we have realised that you are the obstacle to the deal. You are the obstacle. You are the one who stands between us and the return home of our loved ones,” she said.
“If we don’t immediately act to move you away from the steering wheel, we won’t get to see our loved ones returning home alive and fast, and we won’t get to see our dead returned for burial in Israel […] So, today we are compelled to begin a new stage in our struggle.”

Police used water cannon to disperse protesters at the Saturday demonstrations and arrested 16 people.

In a separate protest, scores of demonstrators associated with the Brothers in Arms movement, formed of reservists, rallied in Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox Mea Shearim neighbourhood on Sunday, demanding the conscription of ultra-Orthodox, also known as Haredi, men into the IDF.

“I believe, I believe, I believe in enlisting in the military,” the protesters chanted. Counter-protests by ultra-Orthodox men are expected this week.

As well as a deadline to end the exemption, which the Netanyahu government has sought to extend, Israel’s supreme court has also ordered an end to government subsidies from Monday for many ultra-Orthodox men who study the Torah in religious schools instead of serving in the army.

The ruling follows a series of delays by the government in presenting a proposal to the court aimed at enhancing the military enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men, who have historically been exempt.

As Israel’s armed forces continue to wage a nearly six-month-old war in Gaza in which 500 soldiers have been killed, legislators from the government and the opposition have voiced a stance that places the onus of heightened military service obligations on the Haredi community, rather than imposing additional duties on those already in service.

If the ultra-Orthodox parties were to leave the government, the country would be forced into new elections, with Netanyahu trailing significantly in the polls.

This article was amended on 31 March 2024. An earlier version misquoted Shiri Albag referring to the plight of her “son” and the other abductees; Liri Albag is her daughter.

[wat0n]

Netanyahu is toast.

Not only he's pissed the relatives of the remaining hostages off, but he also failed to stop the Haredi draft and starting today those refusing to show up will be arrested.

He's also undergoing a hernia surgery, looks like the ideal time to give him time off as PM to recover from surgery. The Likud can replace him as party leader, and as PM by extension, if it doesn't want an election.

[Rich]

but he also failed to stop the Haredi draft and starting today those refusing to show up will be arrested.

This strikes me as excellent news for Netanyahu. The status Quo was not sustainable, I strongly suspect Netanyahu wanted this to pass, but didn't want to piss of his allies by appearing to support it.

I guess it all depends on how you see the Hamas situation. Some think Hamas is just about to be toppled. Just one more incy wincy little push and Hamas will topple over, smash into a thousand pieces and we'll never hear from them again. Who would not want to be Prime Minter to take the glory and credit from this imminent fabulous victory?

However this may seem very, very strange to some ears, but there are some people who hold a very, very weird view. They don't think that Hamas is ripe for toppling. They don't see a total victory just around the corner. For some unfathomable reason they're not convinced that with just a small force applied to their top, this totally top heavy organisation Hamas will just topple over be smashed to pieces and never be heard of again. They think rather than being toppled Hamas will have to be dug out or bombed out root by bloody root. Some of these strange people may even go as far not believing that Hamas can be removed as a major force in Gazan politics at all, but that at the very least killing Hamas may involve killing a significant amount of Gaza' population.

If Gantz were to hold to that strange second view, he might not be in a terrible hurry to take over.

[skinster]

Replacing Netanyahu won't change anything. But if he is forced to leave, good. He will then be forced to face the many corruption charges against him and hopefully, the genocide charges too, and his eventual imprisonment.

Seeing these anti-government protests since before Oct 7 has been good. The civil war within will contribute to the eventual downfall of apartheid Israel, and that's good too.

It still blows my mind how Israelis have now seen what the government will do if Israelis are kidnapped by Palestinians. They will either kill them (Hannibal Directive), bomb them with airstrikes (as they've done to probably at least 50 by now in Gaza) or just ignore their family's pleas, as we have seen with the treatment of the families who have been protesting for the remaining hostages release nearly every other day in Tel Aviv.

But, it might explain why over a million settlers have fled Israel already...

How come they were forcing the Haredi into conscription @wat0n? Not enough terrorists in the army during their genocide? Too many have got killed?

[wat0n]

@skinster because they don't share the burden of military service, of course. This debate has been ongoing since the late '90s at least.

[skinster]

@skinster because they don't share the burden of military service, of course. This debate has been ongoing since the late '90s at least.

It has been going on, but why now? Something's not adding up.

[wat0n]

It has been going on, but why now? Something's not adding up.

Because in June last year, the Israeli Supreme Court gave the government until March 24th to come up with a law that would share the burden at least somewhat equally. The government couldn't come up with anything and even requested extensions, and those expired yesterday.

This was likely to happen no matter what, of course, the fact that Netanyahu tried to pull a judicial coup (also before the war) didn't give him any goodwill in the Supreme Court.

[skinster]

Also could be because they need the pawns since so many Israeli terrorist soldiers have been killed during the genocide they're committing in Gaza.

From the protests.

[Deutschmania]

The second day on Monday, March 1, of a planned four-day demonstration outside the Israeli parliament saw thousands of people once again gather on Jerusalem’s Kaplan Street, just below the Knesset and other government buildings to demand the resignation of far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, as well as the return of Israeli hostages in Gaza. Monday’s rally was smaller than Sunday’s initial protest, which saw tens of thousands rally against the country’s current leadership, in the largest such demonstration since the start of the war in Gaza. Organizers claimed more than 100,000 people had taken part, while media outlets reported turnout in several tens of thousands. The major demonstration in front of the Knesset and government offices on Sunday night was a replica of the mass struggles against the judicial overhaul last year.

Protesters in Jerusalem blocked a nearby highway, Begin Road lit bonfires on its lanes and the Chords Bridge at entrance of Jerusalem. The demonstrators, who are holding protests in Jerusalem through Wednesday, set up hundreds of tents in front of the Knesset and the adjacent Gan Sacher.

On last Saturday, March 30, thousands of people took part in a march that ended with a rally in the town of Deir Hanna in the Galilee, to commemorate the 48th anniversary of Land Day – an annual event commemorating protests that broke out on March 30, 1976 against government land seizures in which six Arabs were killed by Israeli security forces.

Israeli police allowed the march to take place on condition that no Palestinian flags will be flown, claiming it could ‘lead to public disorder.’ Organizers decided to abide by the order and write slogans against the war in the colors of the Palestinian flag instead, however Palestinians flags flowed during the rally. All Hadash lawmakers and Communist Party of Israel leading activists took part, as every year, in the march. MK Yosef Atawneh wrote: “We will stand firm and continue to fight against the government of killing and destruction until the war stops.” Other events were held in several places throughout the country, including in Sakhnin, Kfar Qassem and Al-Arakib in the Negev.

On March 11, 1976, Israel’s government, then headed by Yitzhak Rabin, published a plan to expropriate some 20,000 dunams (2,000 hectares or 4,942 acres) of land stretching between the neighboring Arab cities of Sakhnin and Arabeh in the Galilee, 6,300 dunams of which were privately owned by Arab residents of the area. In response to this plan, following a decision by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Israel, local Arab leaders called for a day of general strikes and mass protests against the confiscation of lands to be held on March 30. The mayor of Nazareth, the communist Tawfiq Ziad, was among the local Arab leaders who made such a call.

To frustrate the protest of the Arab community, the governmental declared a curfew to be imposed on the villages of Sakhnin, Arabeh, Deir Hanna, Tu’ran, Tamra and Kabul, effective from 17:00 on March 29, 1976, the day before the general strike. Rabin’s government declared all demonstrations illegal and threatened to dismiss from their jobs any “agitators,” such as schoolteachers, who encouraged their students to participate. However, the threats were not effective, and many teachers led their pupils out of the classrooms to join the general strike and marches that took place throughout the Arab towns in Israel and which were violently suppressed by the military and police.

On March 30, 1976, thousands of Arab-Palestinians in the northern Galilee region demonstrated against the seizure of Arab land, prompting Israeli troops to use lethal force, killing six Arab-Palestinians. In the wake of the first Land Day, a year later, in 1977, the Communist Party of Israel and other progressive forces founded the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash – Jabha). For the last 48 years, Palestinians have been commemorating the deadly events by holding marches in the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Arab villages in Israel. https://maki.org.il/en/?p=31718

[skinster]

There's a four-day encampment outside the Knesset building. Israelis are demanding Netanyahu's resignation.

[wat0n]

And he's also facing protests by the Haredim.

I wonder how long will it take until the religious parties defect.

[skinster]

Hopefully all the Zionists defect to wherever they came from, the sooner for everyone involved, the better.

[Saeko]

Replacing Netanyahu won't change anything. But if he is forced to leave, good. He will then be forced to face the many corruption charges against him and hopefully, the genocide charges too, and his eventual imprisonment.

Seeing these anti-government protests since before Oct 7 has been good. The civil war within will contribute to the eventual downfall of apartheid Israel, and that's good too.

It still blows my mind how Israelis have now seen what the government will do if Israelis are kidnapped by Palestinians. They will either kill them (Hannibal Directive), bomb them with airstrikes (as they've done to probably at least 50 by now in Gaza) or just ignore their family's pleas, as we have seen with the treatment of the families who have been protesting for the remaining hostages release nearly every other day in Tel Aviv.

But, it might explain why over a million settlers have fled Israel already... 8)

How come they were forcing the Haredi into conscription @wat0n? Not enough terrorists in the army during their genocide? Too many have got killed?

The Zionist cult state will only get crazier as the less radical elements leave.

[skinster]

The Zionist cult state will only get crazier as the less radical elements leave.

It has always been thus, Saeko. Since the 1940s.

[wat0n]

There's no evidence that 1 million Israelis left the country.

[skinster]

lol

There's no evidence that 1 million Israelis left the country.

Nearly half a million left in the first two months following Oct 7.

Then there were reports of ships full of Zionists departing the settler-colony.

Massive departure traffic jams have been repeatedly reported in Ben Gurion airport.

A report came out last week or the one before which showed that 80% of Israelis who'd left said they weren't coming back.

Predictions are that a million settlers have left already. I think that's an undercount, given that there is a war happening.

You know most people, especially those who have kids, who have somewhere else to go will do so when a war happens, right? And we know the vast majority of Israeli citizens have dual citizenship because they came from elsewhere.

Even the U.S. waived visa for Israelis following Oct 7 to make it easier for them to flee like rats from a sinking ship. That ship is called Israel.

[wat0n]

I can't find the source mentioned by the Iran-aligned Al Mayadeen.

A ship is not a statistic.

That study by the Knesset includes all Israeli expats, including those who left many years ago. Interestingly, 5/8 of them still believe Israel is the safest place for Jews.

At least the Central Bureau of Statistics of Israel estimated a drop of 150,000. 105,000 due to a change in counting (until 2022, those Israelis who live abroad but visited once a year were counted as residents) and some 60,000 who left (plus 30,000 who returned)

Dr. Ahmad Hleihel, Director of the Demography Sector at the Central Bureau of Statistics, explained that the change in the system increased the number of people emigrating and immediately cut "Census Day 2022" numbers by about 105,000 Israelis: 1.1% of the total population; 0.7% of the Jews, 0.2% of the Arabs, and 12% of the remainder. Since then, the data reveal, another 60,000 Israelis emigrated in 2023, which compares with an average of just 40,000 emigrants annually over the past decade, and 47,000 new immigrants during the last year. "This is a big difference," emphasizes Hleihel. "Within a year and seven months, the number of Israelis decreased by 150,000, in comparison with the old calculation."

The good news is that 30,000 Israelis have also returned during the past year, some to join the war effort. Still, this is an exceptional negative net balance of 30,000 emigrants within one year.

[skinster]

Al-Mayadeen got the figures from Israeli media.

I don't trust "Globes" so will dismiss like you did. Two can play that game.

Lol at you so sad that Zionists are fleeing the war in large numbers. Why don't you go and live there and be a proper Zionist to make up for it, since you spend every waking hour online shilling for Zionism? What's that about?

[wat0n]

The "Israeli media" cited by Al Mayadeen is the Times of Israel, but I can't find the article there.

So where can I find that statistic? At least Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics shows the population increasing since October 2023, but I have no idea of how they estimate monthly population.

[skinster]

And hundreds of thousands have been displaced from what was occupied Lebanon, still holed up in hotels that is costing the Israeli government a bomb...where they've been instructed they have to stay put until at least June.

Israelis got to experience fleeing and displacement thanks to Oct 7.

Back on topic:


Families of detainees protested in the Israeli parliament too today