Protesters gather in Tel Aviv to press for government with Arab parties

Protesters are gathering at Tel Aviv’s Habima Square to demand a government with Arab parties that will unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The premier lost his parliamentary majority in the October 27 election after his Zionist opponents and the two Arab-majority parties, Ra’am and Joint List, cumulatively won 67 of the Knesset’s 120 seats. But most leaders of the Zionist anti-Netanyahu bloc, which on its own got 48 seats, reject forming a government that relies on Arab support.

Hebrew- and Arabic-language banners hanging at Habima Square declare: “67 seats — embarking on a new path.”

A few hundred people have gathered so far. Some beat drums or carry signs of left-wing groups such as Standing Together and Looking The Occupation In the Eye. Protesters chant, “Without partnership there’s no peace” as well as “No more divide and conquer, freedom and equality for all.”

Some protesters also hold signs and chant slogans demanding the release of journalist Abed Abou Shahadeh, who was detained on Wednesday on suspicion of contact with a foreign agent after he traveled to Doha to interview former MK Azmi Bishara ahead the election. Bishara fled Israel in 2007 amid suspicions he aided Hezbollah in the previous year’s Lebanon war.