Jerusalem protesters amp up calls for elections, hostage deal at weekly rally

Hundreds of protesters calling for elections and an immediate hostage deal rallied in Jerusalem amid pouring rain this Saturday evening in what has become a weekly tradition for many in the city as the war drags on, with 134 hostages remaining in Hamas captivity.

Like in previous weeks, the demonstration began outside the President’s Residence with brief speeches from anti-government activists and continued on to Paris Square, where family members of the hostages took to the stage right outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence.

Many of the hostages’ family members who spoke Saturday decried Netanyahu’s decision this week to veto further hostage negotiations, opting not to send an Israeli delegation to Cairo, where talks were to take place.

“They [government officials] speak with us, they meet with us, they promise us that we are their number one priority, so I ask, where are the hostages and why aren’t they here with us now?” said Tom Barkai of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum to protesters from a stage blocking one of the roads to the prime minister’s home.

“Mr. Netanyahu, we have known you for many years as prime minister, you’ve been my prime minister for many years. I and everyone here know that when you want something, you know how to make it a reality — so where are you now?” she continued.

Rubi Chen, the father of Itay Chen, a kidnapped soldier who recently turned 20 in Hamas captivity, held an hourglass in his right hand while scorning the government for declining to engage in hostage negotiations given Hamas’s “delusional” demands, according to Netanyahu.

“What right do the prime minister and the war cabinet have to not send a representative to Cairo? The problem is that of all the 134 hostages, there is no prime minister’s son, nor the daughter of a senior minister… it is only the people of Israel that are captive,” he said sardonically.

Shir Siegel, who spoke to the crowd tonight, had both her parents kidnapped by Hamas from their home in Kibbutz Kfar Azza on October 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 253 hostages.

Siegel’s mother, Aviva Siegel, was released in the temporary truce in late November that also saw 105 hostages freed in exchange for over 300 Palestinian prisoners. Her father, 64-year-old Keith Samuel Siegel, remains in Hamas captivity.

“We are in critical days, days of negotiations, days that can end with my father at home,” said Siegel through tears. “Right now, we are writing the new history of the Jewish nation… This history could be one which turns us into a deserving, moral nation, which respects mitzvot [good deeds] and has ethics, which puts Jewish values first. Or we could become a nation that sacrifices its people to death, that forsakes its wounded in the field — a nation that sanctifies death and not life.”

“Today it is us, tomorrow it could be you… We are all hostage families,” she told the crowd, braving a growing downpour.

A handful of pro-Netanyahu counter-protesters, which consisted of a man with a megaphone alongside religious mothers with their young children waving signs in support of the government, could be heard in the background of hostage family members’ speeches.

Earlier at the anti-government protest outside the President’s Residence, activists and displaced residents of the Gaza border area demanded immediate elections to replace Netanyahu’s current coalition.

Ron Bassin, a teacher from Kibbutz Zikim who was displaced from his home on October 7, began his speech by leading the crowd in a chant demanding the return of the hostages “at any price.”

“The Israeli government under your leadership, Bibi, has thrown us away and abandoned us to our fate… You [Netanyahu] never came to visit us, even once,” Bassin said.

Lia, a representative from the Students’ Protest group, closed out the round of speeches by quoting a posthumous message from Russian political prisoner and Putin opponent Alexei Navalny, who died while imprisoned at a penal colony in the Arctic, according to the Russian prison service on Friday.

“We need to remember that we are a formidable force that is being oppressed by these bad guys. We don’t understand how strong we are, the only thing necessary for the victory of evil is that good people don’t do anything. So do something,” she said, drawing a comparison between Israel’s current government and Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Unlike the increasingly turbulent anti-government demonstrations in Tel Aviv, the rally outside the President’s Residence and subsequent march to Balfour played out without any arrests or police violence despite the heavy presence of law enforcement.

It is believed that 130 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — 30 of whom are not alive, according to IDF intel and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.

Four hostages were released prior to the November truce deal. Three hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 11 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military.

One more person is listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown.

Hamas is also holding the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014, as well as two Israeli civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who are both thought to be alive after entering the Strip of their own accord in 2014 and 2015 respectively.