Major protests in Jerusalem as Netanyahu seeks to fire Shin Bet chief, renews Gaza war

12 arrested as protesters clash with police, block roads; activists demand return of hostages, rage against plans to renew judicial overhaul and dismiss attorney general

By Charlie Summers 19 March 2025, 5:10 pmUpdated at 12:10 am Edit
Anti-government protesters gather around a bonfire on Azza Road in Jerusalem, near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence, before police begin using a water cannon and physical violence to disperse the crowds, on March 19, 2025. (ELAN/Zohar Bar-Yehuda/barakdor/Yair Palti/Gil Levin/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched into Jerusalem on Wednesday morning in a renewed outburst of rage against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, over efforts to remove key security and judicial officials and renew highly controversial legislation to increase political power over the judiciary, and following the collapse of the Gaza ceasefire.

At least 12 protesters were arrested during Wednesday’s rally and at protests that continued into the night, with policing clashed with demonstrators and employing watercannons to break up the crowds. A taxi driver ran over a protester, injuring him, and was later arrested after fleeing the scene.

The major protests came as the government seeks to oust Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, two officials who have drawn the ire of Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition in recent months.

Outrage over preparations to sack the two, coupled with the resumption of fighting in Gaza that has left the fate of remaining hostages uncertain, prompted greater impetus and support for the anti-government protests.

In the morning, police blocked the main highway leading into the capital to traffic as protesters waving Israeli flags and yellow banners set out from Motza, on Jerusalem’s western outskirts.

“It’s time to end this madness before we don’t have anyone to save, before we don’t have a country left,” protest leader Shikma Bressler told the crowd before entering the city.

The protesters gathered outside the Knesset around noon, then proceeded to Netanyahu’s home, on Azza Street in Jerusalem’s Rehavia neighborhood.

Activists leading the march held a large banner that read: “Enough of the government of destruction,” as the large crowds proceeded down Ben Zvi Boulevard, which police also closed to traffic.

Hundreds of others further up the road sat on the pavement while chanting for a deal to free the remaining hostages in Gaza, and in support of the top officials the government plans to oust.

“It happened to Ron Arad, it could happen to all of us,” they chanted, referring to the Israeli Air Force officer long presumed dead following his 1986 capture in Lebanon and subsequent disappearance.

Many protesters held signs with slogans calling for an end to the war, while a handful carried signs calling on reservists to refuse to serve in the military, as an act of defiance against Netanyahu’s government.

During a speech outside Netanyahu’s private home, protest leader Moshe Radman seemed to compare the government to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and other bitter enemies of the Jewish people.

“We got through Haman, we got through Pharaoh, we got through the British Mandate, we got through Hitler… we’ll get through them too,” he said through a megaphone to the applause of other demonstrators.

According to the Ynet news site, Radman later attempted to soften his remarks, saying: “We don’t want a strand of hair to fall from Netanyahu’s head, we only wish for him to get booted from the government and sit in jail until his very last day.”

At the top of the street, near Netanyahu’s official residence, a group of silent protesters sat in the middle of Paris Square, blocking the intersection  to traffic.

Jerusalem police said in the afternoon that they had arrested four people, including one armed counter-protester who threatened to harm demonstrators. “Over the course of the protest, dozens of participants began to disrupt the public order,” a law enforcement spokesman said, adding that many attempted to break through crowd control barriers.

Some protesters also used their cars to block main streets in the capital without police authorization, in what the spokesman called “a blatant violation of the protest conditions agreed upon in advance between protesters and Israel Police in recent days.” He noted that police were planning to tow the vehicles.

The protests continued into the late evening, with demonstrators lighting bonfires on Azza Street and clashing with police. Footage from the street showed The Democrats MK Gilad Kariv being forcibly shoved away by cops, which the left-wing opposition party decried as “crossing a red line.”

“This is what a dictatorship looks like,” it said in a tweet. “This isn’t law enforcement. This is trampling of democracy. We won’t shut up and won’t give in.”

After nightfall, a taxi driver rammed into a protester in what looked to be an intentional attack.

The incident left the protester, Oded Rotem, momentarily unconscious with a minor injury to his leg. According to eyewitnesses, the car dragged Rotem for 50 meters (160 feet) on Herzog Street.

Rotem was hospitalized. The driver fled the scene and was later apprehended by police.

The Democrats party chairman Yair Golan accused Netanyahu’s government of inciting violence, calling the incident “a terrorist attack,” in a post on X, assering that the “violence against patriotic protesters is a direct result of the hatred, lies, and incitement emanating directly from the Israeli government.”

Anti-government protesters gather around a bonfire on Azza Street in Jerusalem, near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence, on March 19, 2025. (Gilad Furst/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

Earlier in the day, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid called on people to go out and demonstrate, calling Netanyahu’s government “illegitimate.”

“We are taking to the streets because the Israeli government has lost its legitimacy,” Lapid declared in a recorded message. “We will not break the law, we will continue to serve, but we will stand firm against a government that is trying to dismantle the country.”

Gantz clashes with demonstrator

Outside the Knesset, one angry demonstrator got into a heated confrontation with National Unity chairman Benny Gantz, who had gone out to greet the protesters in a show of support.

“Get out of here, you disgrace, you betrayed us!” he shouted at the politician, apparently accusing Gantz of not doing enought to fight the government. That prompted a heated shouting match during which the two were physically separated by security, as Gantz shouted back: “For 40 years I fought for the country, and you call me a betrayer?”

Following the incident, Gantz tweeted that most protesters are “Israeli patriots who care about the country,” but that “an unrepresentative handful of arsonists who hate Netanyahu more than they love the country.”

Gantz’s use of the term “arsonists” garnered criticism from politicians to his left, including Democrats party chairman Yair Golan, who countered that “the protesters who took to the streets today are the greatest lovers of Israel I have ever met.”

In a statement hitting back at Golan, National Unity accused the opposition politician of “distorting Gantz’s words, who emphasized the importance of the demonstration and the fact that most of the demonstrators were Israeli patriots.”

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