Police clash with protesters in Jerusalem as thousands march against government
As cabinet votes no confidence in Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, thousands march across the capital towards Netanyahu’s private house, where police arrest at least three
Police clashed with protesters near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in Jerusalem on Sunday, as thousands marched across the capital to demonstrate against the government’s moves to fire Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.
At least three protesters were arrested, according to police.
On Sunday afternoon, thousands of protesters streamed toward Jerusalem’s Azza Road from the direction of the Knesset, many of them carrying tents they planned to set up as part of an overnight protest encampment near Netanyahu’s private residence on the busy street.
Holding Israeli flags and bullhorns, demonstrators blew horns, chanted slogans and held pictures of hostages, singing a familiar song from Hanukkah, “Though the night is cold and dark/ In our soul, there lies a spark.”
Sunday’s protests took place as the cabinet voted no confidence against Baharav-Miara, unanimously. The vote was the first step in a process to dismiss her, as the government has said she has acted as an arm of the opposition and stands in the way of its policies.
Baharav-Miara, who did not attend the cabinet meeting, said in a letter to the cabinet earlier on Sunday that the effort to fire her was born of the government’s fundamental misunderstanding of her role, and insisted it was her job to tell the government when it was acting unlawfully.
During the main gathering, protesters held banners reading “A suspect does not fire an investigator,” in reference to a series of ongoing legal cases against several aides in Netanyahu’s office that the attorney general initiated.
According to Channel 12, police blocked off an additional section of road near Netanyahu’s house, and confiscated equipment from the encampment such as tents, mattresses and chairs.
Former Supreme Court Justice Ayala Procaccia told the crowd that Israel is “no longer a free democracy, but another regime, one that we do not know. A regime in which there is no rule of law and no true freedom, a regime that lacks human rights protections.”
“We cannot put up with such a regime,” she image, calling for protesters to continue showing up and to “unite against the destruction of the image of the state.”
Police, border cops clash with protesters trying to break thru barricades on Azza st pic.twitter.com/3WxIDXPLgl
— charlie summers (@cbsu03) March 23, 2025
Later in the afternoon, police clashed with the crowd in front of Netanyahu’s residence, as a number of protesters attempted to break through crowd control barricades.
Police and border police officers were filmed shoving demonstrators away from the two rows of barricades separating them from Netanyahu’s home.
Police said they arrested three protesters during the demonstrations in the capital, and brought the suspects in for questioning.
One demonstrator hit a Border Police officer in the head, according to a law enforcement spokesman. No serious injuries were reported.
Well over 100,000 people attended protests in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and dozens of other cities across Israel on Saturday night as anger mounted over both the planned removal of the country’s top gatekeepers and the resumption of the war in Gaza in the absence of a hostage deal to release the 24 presumed-living, and 35 dead, captives held by terror groups there.
The Times of Israel Community.