Hundreds of right-wing hostage deal opponents block major Jerusalem intersection

Right-wing demonstrators march in opposition to hostage deal in Jerusalem on January 14, 2025. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)
Right-wing demonstrators march in opposition to hostage deal in Jerusalem on January 14, 2025. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)

Hundreds of right-wing demonstrators are blocking an intersection in central Jerusalem, in protest of the ongoing hostage negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

“A freed terrorist is tomorrow’s murderer,” protesters chant as some sit on the pavement. Most participants hail from Israel’s religious Zionist community, with men donning kippahs, women in head-coverings.

“We won’t forget, we won’t forgive. You don’t have a mandate to surrender to Hamas,” shouts a young man through a loudspeaker.

Traffic is currently blocked in both directions, as police observe on the sidelines.

Earlier this evening, family members of slain soldiers spoke before a large crowd near the Prime Minister’s Office.

Amitai, the brother of slain soldier Elkanah Wiesel, addresses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I remember, as if it were today, one of your first events at the start of the war. You called this war a war between the children of light and children of darkness,” he says.

“I ask you today, Mr. Prime Minister, what happened to the children of light and the children of darkness? Did something change so that you started to talk with the children of darkness?” he continues.

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