Ex-hostages’ son at Tel Aviv protest: Netanyahu, not Hamas, is the ‘real enemy’ of Israel

Shai Mozes, whose parents, Margalit and Gadi Mozes, were kidnapped in the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, and later released in separate hostage deals, says Israel’s “real enemy is not Hamas, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is destroying Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.”

He speaks at the weekly anti-government protest in Tel Aviv’s Habima Square, which has drawn some 500 people thus far. The crowd is dotted with Israeli flags, and chants: “The entire nation knows that Bibi is a crook,” using the premier’s nickname. The protest starts with a moment of silence for five IDF soldiers killed fighting in Gaza this week.

As the protest begins, 50-odd left-wing demonstrators from an earlier protest pack up their equipment — including a large sign reading “We will not kill and be killed for the settlements” — and march over to the joint anti-government and hostage families’ protest on Begin Road. The rest of the Habima protesters are set to follow.

Media personality linoy Bar Geffen, who emcees the Habima rallies, says the demonstration is calling for an end to the fighting in Gaza, the return of the remaining 59 hostages in a single deal, a state commission of inquiry into the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, an end to the governmemt’s judicial overhaul, and new elections.

“What are you afraid of?” she asks members of Netanyahu’s coalition.

Shirel Hogeg, a Sderot resident who survived the Hamas onslaught and rose to prominence after an anti-Netanyahu diatribe went viral, says the demonstration’s purpose is to make Israel “a country that’s worthwhile to live for, not just to die for.”

Gal Elkalay, a social activist who has served hundreds of days in reserves, slams the government’s decision to call up tens of thousands of reservists yet again to wage a war she says has become futile.

“Not the hostages, not dismantling Hamas — this war is a war to protect the coalition,” she says. “There is no more Israel Defense Force, only a Coalition Defense Force.”

“This is not leadership, this is a criminal organization that glorifies death,” she says. “Why are we going back to war?”

Responding to calls from the audience for soldiers to refuse to serve, she says, “We will not refuse,” but urges members of the audience to take sick days and effectively shut down the economy until the government gets the message.