Slain hostage’s mother rails against government at Tel Aviv rally: ‘You can’t ask us to bury both our children and the truth’

Several hundred anti-government protesters gather at Tel Aviv’s Habima Square for a demonstration organized by the Movement for Quality Government corruption watchdog and other civil society groups.

The mostly staid crowd is addressed by a legal scholar, a retired general and bereaved parents who rail against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attacks on the judiciary, his efforts to codify the Haredi exemption from military service, and his failure to take responsibility for the security debacle that enabled the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023.

Ruby and Hagit Chen, parents of Israeli-American formerly captive slain soldier Itay Chen, slam the government for its silence after pro-Netanyahu bereaved families tried to storm the High Court on Thursday as justices weighed whether to order Netanyahu to establish a state commission of inquiry into the attack. Netanyahu has refused to do so, claiming such a committee would be biased against him because its chair would be appointed by the Supreme Court president and likely headed by a retired justice.

“It’s been nearly a thousand days,” says Hagit Chen. “The truth hasn’t been investigated, and responsibility hasn’t been taken.”

“The state keeps acting as though it can just go on without providing answers,” she says. “You can’t ask us to bury both our children and the truth.”

The atmosphere at the protest is less than electric.

Instead of the large stage and screen typically set up for these protests, speakers in this week’s demonstration address the audience from a stage set up in the container of a small truck.

Behind the truck, protesters stand in silence with signs that call to “stop settler terrorism.” Police pull away at least two right-wing provocateurs who clash with protesters near the truck.

Other than a drum circle comprising members of the Pink Front performing arts protest group, the crowd in front of the truck is mostly quiet ahead of and during the speeches.

The relative silence is disrupted when a column of some 200 more protesters arrives, having marched over from the Hungarian embassy in the Old North neighborhood. These protesters spread a large Hungarian flag on the ground, beat drums and chant slogans including “Seventh of October — the Netanyahu massacre.” They continue making noise for a time during the speeches, but soon enough fall silent with the rest of the crowd.

The Hungary motifs are an allusion to Netanyahu’s Hungarian counterpart and ally Viktor Orban, whose election loss last week put an end to 16 years of Christian nationalist rule in Budapest. Orban’s own attacks on Hungary’s judiciary made him a bogeyman for Israeli critics of Netanyahu, who seek to emulate the popular movement that elected Orban’s opponent Peter Magyar. But while Magyar rode to victory on a tide of young people’s resentment, the protesters at Habima overwhelmingly trend middle-aged and older.

Hundreds of people also demonstrated tonight in Jerusalem, and there were other protests elsewhere in the country.