Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced fury from protesters outside Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, in Jerusalem, a day after he resumed the war in Gaza, shattering the two-month-old ceasefire with Hamas.
On Highway 1 – the main road connecting Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – some protesters held a banner reading: “The future of the coalition or the future of Israel.”
The banner alludes to how, over nearly 18 months of war and fragile ceasefires, Netanyahu has been accused of prioritizing the solidity of his governing coalition over the security of his country, as well as the lives of Israeli hostages and Palestinians in Gaza.
Those accusations have been made with fresh anger after Israel bombarded Gaza overnight into Tuesday and killed more than 400 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, in one of the war’s deadliest days.
For Netanyahu, the resumption of war has helped shore up his shaky coalition amid his ongoing corruption trial and ahead of a key vote on Israel’s budget. But for many Israelis, the renewed fighting has stirred feelings of despair – and rage with the government. And for Palestinians, it means the end of the respite that lasted just two months.
Protesting alongside thousands outside the Knesset, Elias Shraga, chairman for the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, a legal watchdog, said that Netanyahu’s war in Gaza was being waged to keep him in power.
Netanyahu had been scheduled to testify in his corruption trial on Tuesday, but the hearing was canceled due to the resumption of military activities in Gaza just hours before he was due in court. The prime minister denies any wrongdoing.
“One reason he wanted to escape justice is because he wants to keep his coalition and he is ready to sacrifice his people, this is it. It’s very simple,” said Shraga, adding that the resumption of fighting showed once more that Netanyahu “doesn’t care about the hostages” in Gaza who were due to be freed under the ceasefire deal.
“We are sacrificing our kinds in this while, [while] our [Prime Minister] sells his soul,” said Shraga.
Netanyahu has argued that military pressure on Hamas is necessary to return the hostages.
‘Taking away our democracy’
Opposition leader Yair Lapid joined Wednesday’s demonstration, which he said aim to “make sure that the government understands they cannot do whatever they want.”
Already, the resumption of fighting appears to have won Netanyahu back the support of Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right minister who quit the government in protest against January’s ceasefire deal. On Tuesday, shortly after the fresh bombardment of Gaza, his Jewish Power party announced it would rejoin Netanyahu’s coalition.
“I’m very concerned about the possibility of a civil war. This nation is divided. It sometimes seems there’s no way out. People don’t believe in democracy anymore. They don’t believe in the life that we had before everything started. You see the division: religion on one side, secularism on the other. It seems hopeless,” Yairi said.
However, others outside the Knesset were showing support for Netanyahu. Standing in the “Heroism and Hope Forum” tent, a group that supports continued military action in Gaza, Margalit Yachad, a volunteer ambulance driver, said she believes Netanyahu is acting in the country’s best interest.