Hostages’ families, anti-government protesters to set up tent city outside Knesset

Anti-government protest groups, bolstered by some of the hostages’ families, were set to gather in Jerusalem Sunday evening for a rally calling for new elections and a deal to free captives held by Hamas. They will also set up a tent city for four days to protest outside the Knesset until lawmakers begin their spring recess.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, the chair of the Yesh Atid party, is set to speak at the evening demonstration at the Knesset, set to begin at 6:30 p.m., along with several activists and relatives of October 7 massacre victims, including Shirel Hogeg, whose family survived the Hamas attacks on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, and Rabbi Benny Lau, known for his relatively progressive positions within the religious Zionist community.

Protesters are then set to march from the Knesset to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence on Azza Street.

The popularity of Netanyahu’s government has plummeted since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, leading to growing calls for elections. It has faced blame over its failure to prevent the October 7 massacre, while some have charged it has fumbled when dealing with key matters relating to the conflict, such as negotiating a deal to release the hostages.

Among criticisms of Netanyahu has been his reluctance to confront his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners over the increasingly thorny issue of the Haredi draft, especially given the army’s manpower shortage amid the war.

A group of hostages’ families took the dramatic step of joining the coalition of anti-government protesters in the heart of Tel Aviv Saturday evening, calling the longtime prime minister an “obstacle to a deal” to release the hostages.

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ביום ראשון הקרוב כולם לוקחים דגל, חולצת מחאה, אוהל ועולים לכנסת.

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The protests were among the largest since the war broke out on October 7 with Hamas’s shock onslaught, which killed 1,200 and saw 253 taken hostage, about 130 of whom remain in Gaza, not all of them alive.

Efforts to secure a second hostage deal, following one in November in which 105 were freed, have faltered but have not been called off.

The Haaretz daily reported that anti-government protest leader Moshe Radman, who is also set to speak Sunday, told a small group of followers on social media that the goal of the Jerusalem rallies was to “create a big event that moves the needle” and pressures the government to schedule the next elections before Independence Day, set for May 13-14.

“It’s important to us – we’re in a painful period, and for the first time, there’s an opportunity for something big that will change this terrible situation,” he wrote.

The Israel Business Forum, representing some 200 leading companies, said it would allow employees to take time off work to “participate in the democratic act” of the protest over the next week.

Rallies will be held every evening outside the Knesset until Wednesday when the Knesset is set to begin its spring recess.

Eli Shtivi, father of Gaza hostage Idan Shtivi, told Channel 12 Saturday that on the final day of the rallies, hostage families would block the entrance to Ben Gurion Airport in a final protest before the Knesset goes into recess.

During protests Saturday evening, police made over a dozen arrests and deployed water cannons to disperse the demonstrations in Tel Aviv, where some protesters blocked major roads.

Clashes with police were also recorded Saturday night in Jerusalem, where some 200 protesters burst through a set of police barriers to demonstrate about 100 yards from Netanyahu’s residence on Azza Street, and in Caesarea where police detained protesters who blocked roads near Netanyahu’s private residence and chanted for him to resign.

A number of coalition lawmakers took to the airwaves Sunday to attack the protesters after the demonstrations in Tel Aviv.

In response, Lapid slammed the government in a post on X. “You are out of your minds. Young women, elderly people, children were kidnapped on your watch,” Lapid said. “For half a year, you failed to bring them home, and then you blame their families? This government of destruction must go home. Elections now.”