Some 65,000 people “attended” an online protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Likud Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein who ordered parliament be shuttered earlier this week.
The “defending the democracy” demonstration organized by the Darkenu grassroots group saw former Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin, ex-Mossad head Efraim Halevy, former Supreme Court chief justice Elyakim Rubinstein, TV personality Lucy Aharish, actress Gila Almagor and Movement for Quality Government head Eliad Shraga address attendees over Facebook Live.
At its peak, neary 600,000 watched the live-stream. (Sixty-five thousand people clicked “attending” on the Facebook event and nearly 600,000 tuned in at its height.)
Addressing the protest, Diskin called on Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz not to serve in a government under Netanyahu.
“The current battle for democracy is no less important than previous wars,” Diskin asserts, accusing the Likud government of seeking to destroy the country’s democracy, adding that a lawmaker facing indictment must not be allowed to serve as premier.
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