Pressure is mounting on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make difficult decisions that could tear his coalition apart. Netanyahu has been under the knife amid negotiations over Israeli hostages and the controversy over ultra-Orthodox conscription.
More than 100,000 people took part in mass demonstrations against Netanyahu’s government, organised in support of the families of Israeli hostages, while in West Jerusalem demonstrators blocked traffic on a motorway, set fires and confronted police.
The focus of the demonstrations was West Jerusalem, where the Israeli parliament is located. Supporters of the families of Israeli prisoners in Gaza and more than 100,000 people demanding the resignation of the Netanyahu government filled the streets and squares around the Israeli parliament.
Anti-Netanyahu groups shouted slogans addressed to Prime Minister Netanyahu such as “You are responsible, you are guilty”, “(prisoner swap) Deal now”, “Elections now” and demanded the resignation of the government.
Some groups demonstrating near the Israeli parliament marched to the Begin Highway, one of the main arteries of the nearby city, blocking traffic and setting fire to the road.
Israeli police used stinking water sprayed by mounted troops against the demonstrators.
On the other hand, during the demonstrations in West Jerusalem, groups demanding that the country’s ultra-Orthodox Jews (Haredi) take part in compulsory military service marched in Mea Shearim, where Haredim live. Some of the haredim and the groups here got into verbal confrontations and sometimes fought.
They set up a tent in front of the parliament
Following the anti-government demonstrations, attended by 100,000 people, some groups set up hundreds of tents in front of the Israeli parliament in West Jerusalem and began to stay there. Demanding the resignation of the Netanyahu government, early elections and the return of Israeli prisoners in Gaza, the protest organisers announced that they would stay in the tents for four days and continue their demonstrations.
The protest groups criticised the fact that the Israeli army’s attacks on Gaza have been going on for 6 months, while the Israeli prisoners in Gaza have not been able to return to their homes.
Tiger Street in front of the Israeli parliament was filled with hundreds of tents set up by protesters. It was seen that some demonstrators came here at night and started to set up tents.
Netanyahu, in a press conference held as the street protests continued, claimed that the calls for early elections would ‘paralyse’ Israel for 8 months and that ‘Hamas would be the most happy with this situation’.
A new round of indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel for a ceasefire in Gaza and a prisoner exchange began yesterday in Cairo.
The hostage crisis has also caused tensions within the coalition. Netanyahu’s rival Benny Gantz, who only joined the war cabinet formed after 7 October as a show of unity, has openly urged Netanyahu to reach an agreement for the release of the 130 hostages. Critics say that Netanyahu, who controls the negotiators’ room for manoeuvre, has prioritised the destruction of Hamas’s military capacity over a deal.
Military exemption
Meanwhile, the controversy over the exemption of ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Israeli youth from military service has reached a climax following the Supreme Court’s decision.
Simultaneous political crises are testing the limits of Netanyahu’s political relationships and capabilities. Netanyahu could lose the far-right wing of his coalition if he strikes a hostage deal that releases Palestinian prisoners convicted of murdering Israelis. Moreover, if he fails to find a way to make the traditional exemption from military service for Haredim permanent, he could lose the support of ultra-Orthodox political parties, which is crucial to maintaining his current government.
On the other hand, failing to reach an agreement to extend the Haredim’s exemption from military service or to bring the hostages home could weaken his influence with other members of his coalition.
“The government has to make a decision, and this makes it difficult for Netanyahu to pull another rabbit out of the hat,” Yohanan Plesner, head of the Jerusalem-based Israel Democracy Institute think-tank, told the Wall Street Journal of the conscription dilemma.
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