Dueling protests held outside AG’s home amid right-wing calls for her ouster

Some 150 right-wing activists rally outside the Tel Aviv home of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to demand her ouster. Police work to keep the protesters separate from a counterdemonstration that has attracted roughly twice as many people.

Baharav-Miara has frequently clashed with members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government, and disagreements have increased amid ongoing investigations into the premier’s staff.

Counterprotesters hoist signs reading “Gali, we’re with you!” as they wave Israeli flags and yellow flags, signifying solidarity with the hostages.

Speaking at the right-wing protest, activist Shay Kallach assails the counterprotesters as the “radical left.”

He then asks the audience what they would do to the attorney general.

“Fire her!” they yell.

“You’re too gentle,” replies Kallach. “She needs to be banished!”

Itzik Bonzel — father of fallen soldier Amit Bonzel and a fixture on right-wing media — threatens the government not to take the right-wing vote for granted if they don’t fire the attorney general.

“I accuse our elected officials — 68 bums, 68 cowards, who think we’re all in their pocket,” he says, referring to the number of seats in Netanyahu’s coalition. “But they’re wrong because if they don’t solve this problem immediately we’ll protest against them.”

Confronting the counterprotesters, right-wing activists wave pictures of Netanyahu and Likud party flags, giddily singing “Bibi, king of Israel,” using the premier’s nickname.

One right-wing protester donned religious garb boasts tattoos of nationalist insignia, including the logo of the outlawed extremist movement Kach. Two others wear the “Make America Great Again” hats associated with US President-elect Donald Trump. One of them wears a shirt reading “We are all Eli Feldstein” — the Netanyahu spokesman detained on suspicion of leaking army intelligence to derail a hostage deal.

A speaker at the protest also namechecks Feldstein, praising him for “protecting all of us.”

Another speaker leads the crowd in a chant of “free, free Feldstein,” riffing on the ubiquitous call in pro-Palestinian rallies worldwide.