Arrests and injuries in Israeli antigovernment protests
Thousands more to participate in nationwide demonstrations over Gaza war and the failure to negotiate the release of captives.
Protesters hold a banner saying, ‘Ceasefire Now' at a protest in West Jerusalem, on June 17, 2024 [Saeed Qaq/Anadolu Images]
Published On 18 Jun 2024
Al Jazeera is reporting from outside Israel because it has been banned by the Israeli government.
At least nine people have been arrested during antigovernment protests in Jerusalem, with more demonstrations expected in the coming days amid Israel’s war on Gaza and fighting with Hezbollah.
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Police clashed with protesters near the residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday night, with Israeli media reports indicating one of the detainees was a family member of an Israeli captive held in Gaza.
The demonstrators have been calling for new elections, a ceasefire in Gaza, as well as a deal for the release of captives being held in the Palestinian enclave.
“Because of you we are dying, get out of our lives,” read one sign carried by protesters, with a photo of Netanyahu and bloody handprints.
Police used water cannon against demonstrators, with three people reportedly sent to hospital for treatment, including a medic wearing a vest who was injured in the eye.
Israelis have been gathering in Tel Aviv every Saturday night since the start of the current conflict in October, but this week tens of thousands descended on Jerusalem. Demonstrators in front of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, were joined by opposition leader Yair Lapid
.
Police forcibly removed several people from the protest [Saeed Qaq/Anadolu Images]
Organisers of the antigovernment protests called for a “week of disruption”.
They also called on local authorities and business leaders to join the protests, with the aim of holding elections before the first anniversary of the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on October 7.
Earlier on Monday, families of Israeli captives participated in one of the committees inside parliament, saying they are fed up with the absence of leadership and decision-making.
Pressure is building on Netanyahu, who dissolved the war cabinet on Monday after his rival Benny Gantz left it along with former army chief Gadi Eisenkot over the lack of a future plan for Gaza.
Reporting from Amman, Jordan, Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut said protesters are also demonstrating against the prolonged conflict with Hezbollah in the north, which has displaced hundreds of thousands of Israelis for months.
“Both sides have picked up the rate of their attacks in the last few weeks. The Israelis say they’re not afraid to enter a full-blown conflict with Hezbollah. However, evacuated people who live in northern Israel have now had their date of return pushed back to the end of August,” she said.
“Demonstrations from those people against the government are now happening with protesters saying there’s no plan to deal with the relentless border fire,” Salhut said.
Organisers of the antigovernment protests called for a “week of disruption”.
They also called on local authorities and business leaders to join the protests, with the aim of holding elections before the first anniversary of the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on October 7.
Earlier on Monday, families of Israeli captives participated in one of the committees inside parliament, saying they are fed up with the absence of leadership and decision-making.
Pressure is building on Netanyahu, who dissolved the war cabinet on Monday after his rival Benny Gantz left it along with former army chief Gadi Eisenkot over the lack of a future plan for Gaza.
Reporting from Amman, Jordan, Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut said protesters are also demonstrating against the prolonged conflict with Hezbollah in the north, which has displaced hundreds of thousands of Israelis for months.
“Both sides have picked up the rate of their attacks in the last few weeks. The Israelis say they’re not afraid to enter a full-blown conflict with Hezbollah. However, evacuated people who live in northern Israel have now had their date of return pushed back to the end of August,” she said.
“Demonstrations from those people against the government are now happening with protesters saying there’s no plan to deal with the relentless border fire,” Salhut said.
A man holds a sign that reads in Hebrew ‘passport control’, and below him a sign depicting a Lebanese national flag, protesting against the expansion of conflict to Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, during an antigovernment demonstration in Tel Aviv [File: Jack Guez/AFP]
Amir Oren, a columnist with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, said anger against the government is increasing from Israelis displaced in the north because of eight months of cross-border fighting with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
“Public sentiment is now against the Netanyahu government, some three-quarters of the public has had enough of Netanyahu. They want him out. But there’s no way to convert it into parliamentary power because he still has his 64-seat member coalition intact,” Oren told Al Jazeera.
“Until such time there are fissures in this coalition, the cries of the hostage families and [northern Israel] dislocated will have no effect.”
Amir Oren, a columnist with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, said anger against the government is increasing from Israelis displaced in the north because of eight months of cross-border fighting with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
“Public sentiment is now against the Netanyahu government, some three-quarters of the public has had enough of Netanyahu. They want him out. But there’s no way to convert it into parliamentary power because he still has his 64-seat member coalition intact,” Oren told Al Jazeera.
“Until such time there are fissures in this coalition, the cries of the hostage families and [northern Israel] dislocated will have no effect.”
Thousands of Israelis protest Netanyahu gov't, demand prisoner swap with Hamas
Demonstration outside parliament in Jerusalem calls for toppling of current administration, early elections
Abdelraouf Arnaout |18.06.2024 -
JERUSALEM
Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in the streets near Israel's parliament in Jerusalem late Monday to protest the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and demand early elections and a prisoner swap with Hamas.
The protesters filled the nearby streets, carrying Israeli flags and photos of Israeli prisoners held in Gaza. Some signs depicted Netanyahu with a red “X” and the text “Evil Demon” in Hebrew and English.
Demonstrators chanted slogans like “Bring down the deceptive government,” “Elections now,” “Traitors” and “Shame,” according to Anadolu’s monitoring of Israeli media outlets which live-streamed the protest.
Monday's demonstration was part of the “Week of Resistance” activities organized by the Brothers of Arms, a group of former Israeli soldiers.
The protests began on the previous Saturday and are scheduled to continue through Thursday.
They are being staged amid political tensions in Israel and calls for a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas, the Palestinian group that controls the Gaza Strip.
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.
More than 37,300 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and over 85,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.
Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio
Hardline Likud MK calls anti-government protesters a ‘branch of Hamas’Demonstration outside parliament in Jerusalem calls for toppling of current administration, early elections
Abdelraouf Arnaout |18.06.2024 -
JERUSALEM
Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in the streets near Israel's parliament in Jerusalem late Monday to protest the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and demand early elections and a prisoner swap with Hamas.
The protesters filled the nearby streets, carrying Israeli flags and photos of Israeli prisoners held in Gaza. Some signs depicted Netanyahu with a red “X” and the text “Evil Demon” in Hebrew and English.
Demonstrators chanted slogans like “Bring down the deceptive government,” “Elections now,” “Traitors” and “Shame,” according to Anadolu’s monitoring of Israeli media outlets which live-streamed the protest.
Monday's demonstration was part of the “Week of Resistance” activities organized by the Brothers of Arms, a group of former Israeli soldiers.
The protests began on the previous Saturday and are scheduled to continue through Thursday.
They are being staged amid political tensions in Israel and calls for a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas, the Palestinian group that controls the Gaza Strip.
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.
More than 37,300 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and over 85,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.
Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio
Thousands protest in Jerusalem against Prime Minister Netanyahu's government
Copyright Ohad Zwigenberg/Copyright 2024 The AP. All rights reserved.
Copyright Ohad Zwigenberg/Copyright 2024 The AP. All rights reserved.
By Euronews with AP
Published on 18/06/2024 -
Police scuffled with the protesters outside of Israeli PM Netanyahu’s residence, using water canons against those who burst through the barriers.
Tens of thousands of people have protested in Jerusalem, calling for immediate elections and an end to the war in Gaza. Israeli police said nine protesters were arrested.
Many Israelis, anguished over the hostages still held in Gaza and the ongoing war, accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of putting political interests ahead of all else. They accuse the government of having lost control of the 8-month-old war and demand a deal to stop the fighting and return the hostages.
Netanyahu denies the accusations and says he has the country’s best interests in mind.
On Monday Netanyahu dissolved the three-man war Cabinet tasked with steering the conflict. The move came a week after Benny Gantz, an opposition lawmaker, quit the coalition government over frustration with the Israeli leader's handling of the war.
“We came to demonstrate again, the 50th time, we are here, in Tel Aviv, everywhere,” said protester Dror Katzman. “To get rid of this corrupted government, that does not release the hostages, that runs the war in a clumsy way and is responsible for the worst, worst terror attack on us since the Holocaust.”
Large anti-government protests have taken place weekly on Saturday night. Monday’s protest in Jerusalem was led by many of the same activists who led the protests against Netanyahu and his attempts to overhaul the judiciary in 2023.
Published on 18/06/2024 -
Police scuffled with the protesters outside of Israeli PM Netanyahu’s residence, using water canons against those who burst through the barriers.
Tens of thousands of people have protested in Jerusalem, calling for immediate elections and an end to the war in Gaza. Israeli police said nine protesters were arrested.
Many Israelis, anguished over the hostages still held in Gaza and the ongoing war, accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of putting political interests ahead of all else. They accuse the government of having lost control of the 8-month-old war and demand a deal to stop the fighting and return the hostages.
Netanyahu denies the accusations and says he has the country’s best interests in mind.
On Monday Netanyahu dissolved the three-man war Cabinet tasked with steering the conflict. The move came a week after Benny Gantz, an opposition lawmaker, quit the coalition government over frustration with the Israeli leader's handling of the war.
“We came to demonstrate again, the 50th time, we are here, in Tel Aviv, everywhere,” said protester Dror Katzman. “To get rid of this corrupted government, that does not release the hostages, that runs the war in a clumsy way and is responsible for the worst, worst terror attack on us since the Holocaust.”
Large anti-government protests have taken place weekly on Saturday night. Monday’s protest in Jerusalem was led by many of the same activists who led the protests against Netanyahu and his attempts to overhaul the judiciary in 2023.
Protesters marched towards Prime Minister Netanyahu's residenceOhad Zwigenberg/Copyright 2024 The AP. All rights reserved.
Protesters marched from outside the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, to Netanyahu’s private residence carrying Israeli flags and chanting anti-government slogans.
“Because of you we are dying, get out of our lives” one protesters’ sign proclaimed, with a photo of Netanyahu and bloody handprints.
Others referenced the 11 soldiers killed in Gaza over the weekend, one of the deadliest for Israeli soldiers in months, holding a sign that read “Combat soldiers refuse to be killed because of Bibi,” using a nickname for Netanyahu.
Protesters marched from outside the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, to Netanyahu’s private residence carrying Israeli flags and chanting anti-government slogans.
“Because of you we are dying, get out of our lives” one protesters’ sign proclaimed, with a photo of Netanyahu and bloody handprints.
Others referenced the 11 soldiers killed in Gaza over the weekend, one of the deadliest for Israeli soldiers in months, holding a sign that read “Combat soldiers refuse to be killed because of Bibi,” using a nickname for Netanyahu.
Opposition leaders urge PM to remove Nissim Vaturi as deputy Knesset speaker; Gantz calls his rhetoric reprehensible; he later claims comments taken out of context, then apologizes
By TOI STAFF and SAM SOKOL
Today
Likud MK Nissim Vaturi attends a meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, April 1, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The deputy Knesset speaker on Tuesday charged that anti-government protesters, who have been regularly demanding early elections and the release of hostages held in Gaza, are a “branch” of the Hamas terror group.
“There are a few branches of Hamas — the fighting branch of wicked terrorists who murder children, and the branch of the protests,” Likud MK Nissim Vaturi said in an interview with the ultra-Orthodox Kol Barama radio station, claiming that the mass demonstrations were supporting the Iran-backed terror group.
Vaturi’s comments came in response to a question about violent clashes between police and protesters who marched toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem on Monday evening.
At least three people were hospitalized, with protest organizers accusing police of using excessive force, including employing a water cannon against protesters. Nine people were arrested during the protest.
When the interviewer challenged him, saying relatives of hostages held by terror groups in Gaza have the right to take to the streets to express their rage and call on the government to seal a deal, Vaturi responded, “You know, there are some families who make less of a fuss, and not necessarily those on the right. They’re practical and come to us demanding answers.”
He also appeared to insinuate that families who did not join the protests were more likely to see their loved ones return, though he said the connection was “coincidental.”
Protesters lift flags and placards during an anti-government rally calling for early elections in front of the Knesset in Jerusalem on June 17, 2024. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)
“I’ll give you a scoop… the hostage families that I met with, and coincidentally it happened, I’m not saying that, you know, but they came home. It’s not always those who shout and scream who will bring their child home,” he said.
When asked directly whether the protests were hindering efforts to secure the release of hostages, the lawmaker responded, “of course,” though when prompted to give specifics he reverted to his previous statement that “the protests are strengthening Hamas.”
The hostages were taken during Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages amid acts of brutality and sexual assault. It is believed that 116 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, with dozens of them thought dead.
Anti-government protesters demand a deal to release hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, June 15, 2024. (Omer Yelin/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
Following Vaturi’s comments, National Unity chairman Benny Gantz called on Netanyahu to remove the Likud lawmaker from his position as deputy Knesset speaker.
“The deputy speaker of the Knesset proved again this morning that he has no understanding or respect for democracy,” Gantz wrote in a post on X, calling Vaturi’s rhetoric “reprehensible.”
“I call on the prime minister to remove him from his position, and to replace him with a dignified figure who will respect the State of Israel and the legislature,” he insisted, adding that failure to do so would constitute agreement with Vaturi’s comments.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid also called for Vaturi to be removed from his position, writing on X, “The protesters are Israel Defense Forces soldiers and officers, they are the Israeli economy, they are teachers and doctors, they are the embodiment of Zionism.”
“Nissim Vaturi, on the other hand, is a man full of hatred whose inflammatory words are being used by Israel’s enemies in a lawsuit in The Hague. Likud should have fired him this morning from the position of deputy speaker of the Knesset,” Lapid added
There was no official comment from the government on the comments.
Anti-government protesters face off with police outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem, on June 17, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Vaturi attempted to backtrack as furious reactions mounted.
Initially, in a post on X, he falsely claimed that his comments were “taken out of context,” writing that the protests “harm our national resilience” but that “the horrible actions of the Hamas Nazis are not fit to be compared to any protest or political act.”
But speaking at the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee later Tuesday, Vaturi apologized for his remarks, saying that when he heard them on the radio “I was horrified… I meant something else entirely and that’s what came out. I’m sorry for that. I don’t think it’s fitting at all to compare anyone to Hamas or its activities.”
The left-leaning Darkenu civil society organization filed a police complaint following the MK’s earlier comments, according to the Walla news site, citing what the group called “wild incitement that is tearing apart the social fabric.”
“Vaturi should leave the Knesset,” Darkenu was quoted as saying. “We expect an unequivocal condemnation from the prime minister for these statements.”
Such statements about anti-government protesters are nothing new for Vaturi, who insinuated in September 2023 that activists at mass demonstrations against the judicial overhaul effort last year were aligned with Iran.
He was also temporarily banned from Facebook in mid-November after he wrote “burn Gaza now” in a social media post, and was sanctioned by the Knesset’s Ethics Committee the following week for falsely accusing two Arab Israeli MKs of supporting Hamas.
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