Live Update arrow right icon From the Liveblog of Saturday, September 7, 2024

Activists light bonfire on Tel Aviv’s Begin Road as Hostage Forum protest joins anti-government rally

By Noam Lehmann 7 September 2024, 10:38 pm 5 Edit
Demonstrators raise placards and Israeli flags during an anti-government protest calling for action to secure the release of hostages held captive since Hamas's October 7 massacre, Tel Aviv, September 7, 2024. (Jack Guez/AFP)
Demonstrators raise placards and Israeli flags during an anti-government protest calling for action to secure the release of hostages held captive since Hamas's October 7 massacre, Tel Aviv, September 7, 2024. (Jack Guez/AFP)

TEL AVIV – Protesters light a bonfire on Tel Aviv’s Begin Road, during a mass rally that organize say is attended by 500,000 people, which would make it the largest in Israel’s history.

After a host of speeches, the Hostages Families Forum demonstration merges with anti-government protesters rallying on nearby Kaplan Street.

Actor Lior Ashkenazi, who emcees the event, pledges after the speeches that “the night is only beginning.”

Speakers accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of insisting Israel remain on the Philadelphi Corridor, separating Gaza from Egypt, as a way to thwart a hostage deal and keep his right-wing government intact.

One man in the audience interrupts a speaker, yelling: “Netanyahu is a murderer!” He draws some applause.

There appears to be little police presence at the demonstration. Officers stand guard slightly north of the intersection, at the exits leading to the Ayalon Highway, which is routinely blocked by anti-government protesters at weekly rallies.

No mounted officers appear to be on site.

Addressing the hostages, Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, says, “Our prime minister wants to kill you instead of save you.”

Varda Ben Baruch, grandmother of hostage Edan Alexander, accuses the government of failing its Jewish heritage by not redeeming the hostages.

“Have you forgotten what the Jewish people have persisted on?” she asks.

The final speaker is Yifat Calderon, cousin of hostage Ofer Calderon and a harsh critic of Netanyahu.

She says her cousin is held hostage “by Hamas and by the prime minister, Mr. Abandonment.”

Calderon calls on “all my activists to get up on the stage.” It is unclear to whom she was referring, but she’s clearly irked that they are blocked from coming up. A police officer could be seen arguing with people, including hostage relatives, at the entrance to the stage.

“Instead of finding ourselves fighting for the hostages, people think we need to fight for other irrelevant things,” says Calderon, before her mic was cut.

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