From the Liveblog of
Saturday, December 16, 2023
Organizer of Tel Aviv rally for hostages asks members of crowd to stop chanting ‘shame’
Canaan Lidor is a former Jewish World reporter at The Times of Israel
Chants of “shame” spread spontaneously across Shaul Hamelech Boulevard, the traffic artery running along the Kirya military base.
The chants come from the thousands of participants in the weekly solidarity rally with Israeli hostages being held in Gaza. They follow speakers’ appeals for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make a deal with Hamas for the release of 129 people still presumed to be held in Gaza.
The chants echo those heard during the rallies against the government’s planned judicial overhaul held across Israel in the nine months that preceded the Hamas onslaught on October 7.
A spokesman for the Hostage and Missing Families Forum, which organizers the rallies, comes onto stage to ask the crowd to stop chanting “shame.”
“Save it for different roads and junctions at a different time,” he says. “There is no place for politics here. From now on shout ‘now’ instead of ‘shame,'” adds the man, who does not introduce himself to the crowd.
The Times of Israel Community.