Thousands rally at Tel Aviv’s Begin Road to demand hostage deal, end to war
Some 2,000 anti-government, pro-hostage deal protesters rally outside the Begin Road entrance to the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, a day before the Gaza ceasefire-hostage release agreement is set to go into effect.
Many of the protesters arrived at the rally as part of a massive human column that marched up Kaplan Street for the weekly “democracy march,” chanting, “The government is criminal.”
The protest is held amid a sea of Israeli flags, dotted with some American, Pride, and sheer yellow flags, the latter representing solidarity with the hostages.
Outside IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, protesters chant: “We are all hostages of the government of blood.”
Ahead of speeches, an activist standing on an overhead pedestrian bridge reads the names of the remaining 98 hostages. After each name, protesters yell,”Now!”
By contrast, when Yifat Calderon, cousin of hostage Ofer Calderon, reads out the names of ministers who voted against the deal Friday night, the crowd erupts in boos at each name.
Talia Danzig, granddaughter of slain hostage Alex Danzig, says her grandfather will only be able to rest in peace when all the hostages return.
“All 98 of them will come home and get the biggest hug a human has ever received,” she says.
“I fought to bring you back, and you didn’t return in time,” she says of her grandfather, whose autopsy indicated he was shot by his captors after Israel bombed the area where he was held.
“You came back in a black bag,” says the granddaughter. “The funeral was attended by hostage families who used to be just plain families.”
She says that when she hears opponents of the hostage deal urge “only military pressure and war,” she thinks to herself, “military pressure and war will kill the hostages.”
Referring to the government’s failure to reach a hostage deal until this week, Danzig says: “We won’t let them keep on thwarting [it], we won’t let them keep on selling us lies.”
The weekly Begin Road protest takes place at the same time as the weekly Hostages and Missing Families Forum rally at Hostages Square, a block away.