Right-wingers rally in Jerusalem against ‘Trump deal,’ urge government to oppose it
Israel not just ‘another star on the American flag,’ says organizer of protest; police arrest three demonstrators for damaging vehicles, setting fires on the road

Around one thousand right-wing protesters rallied in Jerusalem on Thursday night against the hostage-ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that was announced a day earlier.
Organized by bereaved and hostage families on Israel’s political right, the “emergency rally” served as a last-minute bid against the deal, which many speakers noted was spurred on by incoming US President Donald Trump.
Police arrested three demonstrators for blocking traffic, damaging vehicles and setting fires on the road later that night during the demonstration.
Attendees displayed banners calling for Israel to continue the war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip until victory, as others held signs calling for “conquest, expulsion, settlement” in the enclave.
The rally began in a disorganized fashion, with some participants clustered near the central stage, others in the protest tent for coffee, tea, and women’s prayers. Another group of mainly young men blocked an intersection further up the road.
Speakers on the central stage called on the protesters blocking traffic to join in the main rally, where family members of slain soldiers and settler leaders delivered speeches.
Berale Crombie, an organizer with the Gvura Forum, a group of bereaved families, prefaced the speeches by urging government ministers to vote against the deal in Friday’s cabinet meeting.
“The State of Israel is not just another star on the American flag,” he said. “The Trump deal is bad for Israel.”

Yehoshua Shani, the chairman of the forum whose son, Uri Mordechai Shani, was killed in battle on October 7, insisted that the only way to free the hostages was through “total military victory.”
He called on government ministers, particularly those in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, to “gather courage” and vote against the agreement.
Veteran settler activist Daniella Weiss railed against Trump and a prospective peace agreement with Saudi Arabia while calling for Jewish settlement in Gaza.
“Trump promised hell for Gaza, and he is giving us hell, the Jewish people!” she exclaimed to the crowd.
Weiss, a longtime religious Zionist leader who played a central role in founding West Bank settlements following the Six-Day War, has recently been a leading advocate of resettling Gaza.

She bemoaned that many on Israel’s right convinced themselves that Trump “will bring us only good things as if he is the messiah.”
“But here he is, already seeking peace with Saudi Arabia,” she said, calling the prospect an “illusion of world peace.”
“The time has come to go back and cancel this deal. It is a shame and disgrace that we are here, crawling before our enemies,” she continued.
The crowd began to chant “death to terrorists” during a brief pause in the speech.
Weiss, claiming there was rejoicing across the Arab world at news of a hostage and ceasefire deal, then said it is “not just rejoicing, but preparations to attack, preparations for war.”
She then repeated some of her points in English in an appeal to international media, claiming the entire world fears Trump because “the way [that] he rewarded Hamas for attacking Israel, he is going to reward Russia for attacking Ukraine.”
She called on Netanyahu and others in his cabinet to “go by the values of the Bible, the values of the Jewish nation,” and vote against a hostage and ceasefire deal.
A message in English from veteran religious Zionist activist Daniella Weiss, one of the loudest voices calling now to resettle the Gaza Strip: pic.twitter.com/tRONDVbOIk
— charlie summers (@cbsu03) January 16, 2025
“We want the Jewish people in the land of Israel… [we will] never give any part of the living body of the land of Israel to anybody,” she said. “We will settle Gaza, we will settle Lebanon, we will settle the entire Promised Land!” she concluded to widespread applause.
After Weiss left the stage, Tzvika Mor, the father of Hamas-held hostage Eitan Mor, lamented to the crowd that his son “paid the price” for the 2011 deal to free captured soldier Gilad Shalit.
Later in the evening, protesters again blocked traffic at an intersection further up the road. According to a police statement, law enforcement arrested three protesters for disturbing the peace and damaging vehicles that were passing by the demonstration.
One of the suspects was arrested for using pepper spray against the protesters, police said. Protesters also blocked traffic, including emergency vehicles, and ignited a fire in the middle of the road, according to the statement.