Israelis set up a tent city in Jerusalem to protest Netanyahu and call for new elections
Demonstrators are calling for new elections to protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. They’ve camped out in front of the Knesset. Protests in Israel are not new, but what is new are the people who’ve joined ranks in this demonstration. The World’s host, Marco Werman, and reporter Matthew Bell are in Jerusalem.
In Jerusalem, Israelis angry with their government have been beating drums and surrounding the parliament building after launching huge demonstrations over the weekend.
They’ve set up a tent city in a sign that they don’t intend to leave any time soon. The man they are protesting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, rebuffed calls that he should face new elections.
“Those calling for elections in the middle of a war just before victory will paralyze Israel for the next 6 to 8 months,” Netanyahu said. He made those comments yesterday, just before having hernia surgery.
Protests in Israel are not new, but what is new are the people who’ve joined ranks in this demonstration. The World’s Marco Werman is on the ground in Jerusalem with reporter Matthew Bell.
Marco Werman: I’m in central Jerusalem, at the top of a hill facing down at the parliament building here in Israel, the Knesset. Flanked on my right and left are government buildings. There’s the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. An emcee at the bottom of this hill, leading what is a major demonstration against Prime Minister Netanyahu was just calling people, beckoning them to come down the hill and take part in a very major protest here this Monday. Matthew Bell, give us a little context here. What are we looking at and why are these demonstrators so passionate?
Matthew Bell: I think one thing, the first thing that comes to mind, a lot of the signs you see here are things like, “Bring them home now.” The hostages that remain in the Gaza Strip who were taken on Oct. 7 — there’s something like 150 hostages that have not come home yet — are still there. This is a huge issue among Israelis who live on the left, right and center. People are really concerned about the fate of these people. They want them back. I think the second thing that we’re seeing here with this demonstration is a continuation of something that started a little over a year ago. That’s when this right-wing Netanyahu government came in — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — and got a coalition together with some far-right members that really angered people in the center, especially on the left. A protest movement really kicked off when the government tried to reform the legal system radically.
Israelis angry with their government have been beating drums and surrounding the parliament building after launching huge demonstrations over the weekend.Alon Farago/The World
And it seems as if those demonstrations last year against the judicial reform — we see the sea of tents down there of people who are going to stand out here and sleep out here until the hostages come home — are we seeing the merging of two different protest movements?
I think the bottom line, and what we heard talking to people just now, is that a lot of people are really concerned that this is not the government to win this war, to bring the hostages home, to do what needs to be done, and make difficult decisions about the future. For example, when I was just chatting with a woman, the first thing she brought up was that she said, “Look, I have two sons. They’re going to have to go into the military.” A huge swath of Israeli society, ultra-Orthodox, don’t send their kids to the military for the most part. This is a big, big issue here in Israel. It’s a big political issue. The Israeli military says they’re short on troops, and that has become clear during this war. So, that’s just one of the things that we’re hearing from people here, that they’re just finished with this government. They want elections. They want a change.
Protesters have set up a tent city outside the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, April 1, 2024.Alon Farago/The World
We also heard dissenting voices in this crowd who are saying, “We don’t want Israel being shown to the world to be this kind of place, that they’re against their government, that the international, kind of, world order is coming here to go to make our decisions. What was that about?
This is interesting. In the middle of us talking to someone who was being quite critical of the government, there was a guy who got upset and said, “Look, that’s not the way democracy is supposed to work. You don’t go talking to the foreign media, sort of airing our dirty laundry.” He seemed pretty worked up about it and said, “Look, if we want to solve these problems, we have to do it here within Israeli democracy.” And then his argument was, this is the government that’s in place. They were elected. They are here to win the war, to bring the hostages home. And it’s not up to the rest of the world to figure out how to do that.
Some Israelis say protesters should not be publicly demonstrating against the government. Different groups have come together to call for new elections, Jerusalem, April 1, 2024.Matthew Bell/The World
Despite these dissenting voices, I just have to comment on the festive atmosphere that’s out here. We know that there has been some violent activity at some of these protests, but tonight, it feels very much like almost a party.
Right. The sun hasn’t gone down yet. There’s speakers, there’s music playing. There are people sort of young and old, all ages. What has happened, though, since Oct. 7 is that some of these demonstrations, some of the demonstrations calling for the hostages to come home, and some of the anti-government demonstrations, at times, have done things like blocked roads. They’ve, you know, set tires on fire, blocked even the main highway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. So, these things have gotten pretty intense.
I would guess there are probably anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 people here. That’s a rough, rough guess.
It’s a good guess. And as we’re standing here now, hundreds of people are streaming down to join this protest. The other thing is, as you mentioned, the tents. I don’t know how long they plan to stay, but it looks like they’re going to stay a while.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
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