From the Liveblog of
Saturday, October 11, 2025
Likud lawmakers and Gantz berate crowds at Hostages Square for booing Netanyahu during Witkoff’s speech
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleNava Freiberg is The Times of Israel's deputy diplomatic correspondent.
Members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition defend the premier after a large crowd gathered at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv tonight booed at the mention of his name during a speech by US special envoy Steve Witkoff in celebration of the hostage deal.
Justice Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Yariv Levin calls the boos “a great disgrace” and “a shameful display of ingratitude toward Prime Minister Netanyahu, who led the State of Israel through one of its most difficult times and achieved the tremendous accomplishments…that include the return of the hostages.”
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, in an apparent reference to the incident, shares a photo of Netanyahu on X, captioned: “Prime Minister of Israel — the toughest job in the world, and the most thankless of all.”
Likud member and chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Boaz Bismuth joins in, saying the premier “doesn’t need people to clap for him; the history books will do it in their place. They will continue to boo, and he will continue to write the chapters that everyone will still learn in the history of the people of Israel.”
Education Minister Yoav Kisch writes: “These extremist fringes do not represent the majority of the people of Israel, who support the agreement and are grateful to those who brought it about — Netanyahu and [Strategic Affairs Minister Ron] Dermer.”
Weighing in from the opposition, Blue and White-National Unity chair Benny Gantz also condemns the booing, writing on X: “I have tremendous appreciation for the general public that comes, week after week, to Hostage Square and to rallies across the country. And I am also part of it. But even when there are differences of opinion, to boo the Prime Minister of Israel, in front of the American government envoy and in the presence of the hostages’ families – that is a mistake.”
“I am certain that these shouts do not represent the majority of the people of Israel, nor the majority of those present in the square,” he says.
The Times of Israel Community.