Over 40,000 in Tel Aviv protest Netanyahu over move to fire Shin Bet chief
Former Mossad chief says prime minister poses ‘clear and present danger to the nation’s security’ as crowd accuses leaders of abandoning nation for narrow political interests
Some 40,000 people packed Tel Aviv’s Habima Square and the surrounding area Tuesday night for a protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to oust Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, amid a probe into the alleged ties between aides to the premier and Qatar.
Referring to Netanyahu, protesters projected the words, “Mr. Abandonment” on the adjacent national theater building, and chanted: “The time has come to topple the dictator.”
The demonstration, which appeared to be one of the largest against the government in recent months, came as Israel resumed fighting in the Gaza Strip, paving the way for the return to the cabinet of far-right politician Itamar Ben Gvir, who has been among the loudest voices demanding the ousters of Bar along with Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who is also in the coalition’s crosshairs.
The moves sparked accusations, denied by Netanyahu, that the government had ended the ceasefire and scuttled hostage negotiations in order to bolster the premier’s political support with far-right allies ahead of a key budget vote later this month.
“The ‘peace for Netanyahu’ war has begun,” charged former Mossad head Tamir Pardo, one of several former senior security officials to speak at the rally. Referring to criminal charges leveled against Netanyahu, he charged that the “coward, charlatan and liar” was putting Israel on track to self-destruction.
“We won’t forgive and won’t forget the abandonment of the country’s defense,” he added. “You, the suspect Benjamin Netanyahu, pose a clear and present danger to the nation’s security.”
Netanyahu announced Sunday he intended to fire Bar, citing a lack of trust, but Baharav-Miara argued that he cannot proceed with the dismissal unless a “factual and legal basis” for doing so can be established.
Netanyahu on Monday accused the attorney general of overstepping her authority and pushed back against claims that Bar’s firing was related to the police and Shin Bet’s probe into alleged illicit money transfers from Doha to three aides, launched at the behest of Baharav-Miara.
Roni Alsheich, a former police chief who publicly sparred with Netanyahu, accused the premier of letting Qatar serve as a ceasefire mediator precisely so Hamas would stay in power and serve as a counterweight to the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.
“Qatar’s strategic aim is maintaining Hamas rule,” Alsheich said. “The hostages are a pawn of the Qataris toward that aim.”
The protest was organized by the group “Protective Wall for Israel,” which bills itself as bringing together 169 former top officials from the military, police, Mossad and Shin Bet.
Maj. Gen. (res.) Noam Tibon, who emceed the rally, cited police figures saying around 40,000 people attended, making it one of the largest such demonstrations since September.
Former Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen appeared to earn the crowd’s ire by asking attendees to stop chanting “traitor” about Netanyahu and by qualifying many of his criticisms of the premier.
“It’s my understanding,” he said, to annoyed murmurs from the crowd, “that the real existential threat is not Hamas and Hezbollah but those who seek to change Israel’s democratic character.”
The rally was one of several protest actions taking place against Bar’s firing, which is also being challenged by petitioners to the Supreme Court. Earlier on Tuesday, dozens of protesters held a march to Jerusalem, ahead of larger demonstrations planned for Wednesday in the capital.
It is not yet clear when the cabinet will meet to fire Bar.
On Tuesday, Baharav-Miara told Netanyahu in a sharply-worded letter that he could not convene the cabinet to vote on ousting Bar until he receives a recommendation on the matter from the key Senior Appointments Advisory Committee.
She also pushed back against the claim by Netanyahu that the Qatar probe was ordered to stymie his plans to fire Bar, on the ostensible grounds that the Shin Bet head could not be dismissed by the prime minister while the agency was investigating Netanyahu’s aides.
Several members of Netanyahu’s cabinet have urged him to also dismiss Baharav-Miara over her consistent opposition to government moves, but the premier has yet to actually move against her.
During a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who appointed Baharav-Miara while a minister in the previous government, accused the attorney general of “harming the government” and compared her to a Japanese kamikaze suicide fighter pilot, according to his office.
The day also saw protests against Netanyahu by families of hostages held in Gaza, who argued that the resumption of fighting there would make freeing their loved ones more difficult.
Critics have alleged that Netanyahu resumed fighting and fired Bar to pave the way for Otzma Yehudit to rejoin the coalition, giving the prime minister breathing room after Haredi politicians threatened to vote against the budget and topple the government if demands for legislation exempting yeshiva students from military service are not answered.
Haredi draft exemptions are “selektzia of blood from blood,” Pardo said at the rally, using a Holocaust-era term describing Nazi Germany’s distinction between Jews deemed fit for hard labor and those sent straight to slaughter.
He again used the term to criticize protracted hostage releases under the Gaza ceasefire deal, calling Netanyahu’s management of the talks a “disgraceful fraud that led to Judenrat-like selektzia between hostages.”
Rafi Ben Shitrit, whose son Elroi, 20, was killed fending off the Hamas onslaught on October 7, 2023, criticized Netanyahu for refusing to convene a state commission of inquiry into failures leading up to the Hamas onslaught.
The premier, whose government is working to weaken the judiciary, has repeatedly claimed that such a committee would be skewed against him, since it would be headed by a former Supreme Court justice and its members appointed by Chief Justice Isaac Amit, whom the government is boycotting. Polls show wide public support for such an inquiry.
“How will we mend if we don’t know what we’ve broken, how will we improve if we don’t know where we’ve failed, [and] how will we heal if we don’t know what’s ailing us,” Ben Shitrit asked.
The country’s priorities should be “citizens before the government, kingdom before the king, democracy before politics,” he added.
Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker and a vocal Netanyahu critic, encouraged attendees to join an ongoing tent encampment outside the Israel Defense Forces’ Kirya headquarters, where protesters have camped out to demand a deal.
“Netanyahu didn’t open the gates of hell on Hamas today,” she said, paraphrasing US President Donald Trump’s threats against Hamas if it failed to release the hostages. “He opened the gates of hell on our loved ones.”
The Times of Israel Community.