At Tel Aviv protest, Ya’alon calls Netanyahu’s government a ‘dictatorship of criminals’

Moshe Ya’alon, former defense minister and protest leader, addresses the estimated 100,000 Israelis gathered on Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Street to call Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government a “dictatorship of criminals.”

“A state in which the PM will appoint all of the judges, there’s a name for it: dictatorship,” he says. “If there’s a country in the world that cannot afford to have the Court destroyed and have democracy turn into dictatorship, it’s Israel.”

Ya’alon calls the current government a “dictatorship of criminals,” citing the examples of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir encouraging the police to “strike protesters” and the government’s proposal to have control over judicial appointments.

Paraphrasing one of Yitzhak Rabin’s famous speeches, former IDF chief of staff and defense minister Ya’alon states his military ID number and says that this “war” against dictatorship is his most important.

“Legislation that turns Israel into a dictatorship is legislation that is grossly illegal,” he says. “The way we stopped Syria and Egypt from destroying Israel, we will stop Netanyahu from doing the same.”

“We all enlisted because we care about the state and its future,” Yaalon tells the crowd. “Democracy will always defeat dictatorship.”