‘Mr. Abandonment’: Hostage families rage against PM at Tel Aviv protest
Thousands gather up and down the country for the third consecutive day of demonstrations; at least two arrested in Tel Aviv as bonfires lit in the middle of the road
Thousands of protesters blocked traffic on Tel Aviv’s Begin Street, outside the IDF’s military headquarters, on Tuesday as people rallied up and down the country for the third consecutive day demanding a hostages-for-ceasefire deal, after the IDF recovered the bodies of six hostages from Gaza on Saturday night, all of them executed by their Hamas captors just days earlier.
In Tel Aviv, the crowd of protesters swelled to include several thousand people, according to media reports, with relatives of hostages delivering angry speeches from atop a van.
“The Philadelphi Corridor is the biggest bluff there is,” declared Eli Albag, father of hostage Liri Albag, referring to the strip of land along the Gaza-Egypt border where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded troops remain, turning it into a major sticking point in talks.
“Netanyahu thinks Israel’s people are dummies. Hezbollah, Iran, the West Bank, Gaza — the most important axis is the Ben Gvir-Smotrich axis. That’s the most dangerous axis to the nation of Israel,” he said, according to the Ynet news site.
“You can’t take control over two people, how will you take over 14 kilometers,” Albag continued, referring to ultranationalist ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
He ended his speech with a request for the protest-goers to join him in observing a minute of silence, flashlights aloft in the air, for slain hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, Carmel Gat and Almog Sarusi.
As the minute of silence came to an end, the crowd erupted into a call-and-response chant of “Everyone! Now!” which has become a staple feature of hostage deal protests.
Protesters waved signs and held banners up and down the street, some with anti-Netanyahu slogans emblazoned on them, and others with sentiments relating to the hostages.
One man wearing a mask of Netanyahu’s face lay in the middle of the street next to a mock grave.
“I added clauses. Hostages died. Sorry,” read a sign on the floor in front of the premier’s likeness, referring to the amendments made by the premier in July to the US-backed Israeli hostage release-ceasefire proposal from May, which defense officials and negotiating teams alike have warned are jeopardizing the fate of the hostages by holding up or potentially dooming a deal.
One protester held a sign reading: “In the third temple, Netanyahu offers human sacrifice.”
Chants of “the hostages are in Gaza for too many hours, the blood is on the hands of the horror government,” filled the air, while others yelled, “It’s now or never — there’s a deal on the table.”
איזה איש אלי אלבג. מאחלת לו שיתאחד ביתו האהובה. כמה היא תהיה גאה בו על המלחמה שניהל על חייה.
— נריה קראוס Neria Kraus (@NeriaKraus) September 3, 2024
Following Albag’s speech, Einav Zangauker took to the makeshift stage, campaigning, as she has done since October 7, for the release of her son Matan from captivity in Gaza.
Addressing Netanyahu’s cabinet ministers, she warned that their names “will be written in the history books with the blood of the hostages who were murdered in Gaza.”
“You have one way to avoid that fate — abandon the hangman from Azza Street,” she warned, referring to the street on which Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence sits. “Replace him with someone who will bring about a deal.”
Ifat Kalderon, the cousin of hostage Ofer Kalderon, accused Netanyahu — whom she bitterly referred to as “Mr. Abandonment” — of harming the negotiations by ordering the assassination of top Hamas officials and “causing the death of the hostages.”
“The military pressure, which never led to progress in the negotiations, has turned into a veritable mortal danger for the hostages,” she said. “And you, Mr. Abandonment, have lost the way.”
“You don’t know how to lead a war, you don’t know how to lead us,” continued the cousin of the 53-year-old hostage. “You leave them to die. Them and the basic values on which this country is founded.”
She called on her cousin to stay strong, and promised that she wouldn’t give up on him.
“There is an entire people fighting for you to come home,” she said. “Hold on for your children, and for yourself.”
Protesters then banged drums and lit bonfires in the street, as police began attempting to disperse the crowds.
A group that provides legal aid to arrested protesters said that at least two people were detained.
Multiple demonstrations
Elsewhere in Israel, some 1,000 people gathered in Rehovot in a show of support for the family of abducted soldier Nimrod Cohen, Ynet reported.
Nimrod’s brother Yotam denounced Netanyahu, telling the crowd that he and the government had decided to double down on “their position of abandoning citizens.”
“The blood of six hostages, of six Israeli citizens, this is the ‘absolute victory,'” he said, angrily echoing Netanyahu’s oft-repeated slogan. “Six coffins with the Israeli flag for the glory of the State of Israel.”
Crowds of several dozen to several hundred people gathered at other intersections across the country, including in the Lower Galilee in northern Israel and at the Sha’ar HaNegev Junction in the south, where protesters sat cross-legged in the road waving yellow flags.
In Jerusalem, protesters lined the streets around Paris Square, holding signs with photos of the hostages on them as they echoed the chants of “Everyone! Now!” that were heard in Tel Aviv. According to the Kan public broadcaster, police forces prevented protesters from marching toward Azza Street, as they had originally planned to do.
עכשיו בעזה, ירושלים pic.twitter.com/uKM4Kk14z3
— רוח מותק (@anarcho_parcho) September 3, 2024
Away from the main roads and the busy intersections, protesters also gathered outside the homes of Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Foreign Minister Israel Katz.
Among those outside Katz’s home was the grandson of Lior Rudaeff, who was killed by Hamas terrorists during the invasion of Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak on October 7, and his body taken to Gaza.
Outside Levin’s home in Modi’in, protesters set up placards with the faces of the six hostages executed by Hamas last week, and draped Israeli flags to look like bodybags on the ground.
It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas during the October 7 terror onslaught remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 33 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
