Violence erupts near Knesset as police forcibly disperse anti-government protesters
At least 2 arrested, with police accusing demonstrators of refusing to clear path to Prime Minister’s Office; hostage’s father says ‘nobody cares’ about his son’s suffering in Gaza
Hundreds of anti-government demonstrators protested outside the Knesset in Jerusalem on Monday afternoon, with police forcibly dispersing some of those gathered, as clashes broke out between protesters and officers.
The protesters had marched from the Chords Bridge to the Knesset complex for a demonstration timed to coincide with the first weekly faction meetings following the end of the spring recess.
Speaking to Channel 12 news, protesters said they showed up to demonstrate over a host of issues, including the failure to recover the remaining 59 hostages from Gaza, the mass call-up of IDF reservists, and the treatment of the country’s educators during ongoing wage disputes.
While the demonstrators were allowed to rally outside the Knesset, some of them were said to have tried to block the entrance to the Prime Minister’s Office, which is just across the street. Police ordered them to move, and later forcibly removed those who refused.
Protest organizers said that at least two people were arrested in the clashes, though one was released shortly afterward.
Police said that some protesters ignored police demands to move out of the way and “swore at a police officer” who was on duty. In a statement, police said one protester was arrested after attacking a female police officer who was working to clear demonstrators from the unauthorized zone.
Police forcibly remove protesters from a road leading to the Prime Minister’s Office, on May 5, 2025. (Orna Kupferman/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
In footage posted online, police could be seen hauling protesters across the street while crowds jostled around them. In a second video clip, a protester is dragged across the street by the arm, while another is hauled out of the crowd by a cop pulling him by the strap of his backpack.
Addressing the Knesset on Monday, Regional Cooperation Minister Dudi Amsalem accused protest organizers of being funded by Iran, sparking outrage from some opposition MKs.
“You’ve been doing this for more than 2.5 years, with huge amounts of money that you raise from overseas, including from hostile countries,” he said, speaking from the Knesset rostrum. “I’m convinced, by the way, that your protests are also being funded by Iranian parties… Time will tell.”
His comments prompted yelling from Labor MK Efrat Rayten and Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben-Ari.
Some of the protesters gathered outside the Knesset were tied to the larger movement to free the hostages remaining in Gaza, who were particularly angry after the government overnight approved an expansion of the fighting that was said to include “conquering” the Strip.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich asserted on Monday that Israel is “finally going to occupy the Gaza Strip,” adding that once the new offensive in Gaza begins, there will be “no retreat from the territories we have conquered, not even in exchange for hostages.”
Speaking at the protest outside the Knesset, Merav Svirsky, the sister of slain hostage Itay Svirsky, who was murdered in captivity, slammed the current government, mentioning the Qatargate scandal, in which aides to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are accused of being paid by Doha to advance its interests.
“The Qatari money that funded Netanyahu’s office also funded the weapons that were used to murder my family,” said Svirsky, whose parents, Orit and Rafi Svirsky, were murdered in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7.
“It’s insane to understand the self-interests involved here,” she continued. “It burns me inside to understand how these self-interests affected the lives of my family.”
Some protesters brought a large model train adorned with an outline of Netanyahu’s face and the writing “The Trojan Qatar” to the protest outside the Knesset.
At a protest nearby, Ofir Braslavski, the father of hostage Rom Braslavski, noted that they recently received a video of his son, in which “I could barely identify him. He’s in really bad shape.”
“But everyone just keeps going, nobody cares. It doesn’t interest anybody,” Braslavski said.
In a statement Monday afternoon, the Hostages Family Forum accused the government of “saying in a clear voice, ‘We have abandoned the hostages.'”
“Despite the government of Israel doing everything in order to cause us to lose hope, the vast majority of Israelis will not give up,” the organization added.
Polls have consistently shown that a large majority of the Israeli public favors a deal that would see all the hostages held in Gaza released, even if it means ending the war.
Israel believes that 59 hostages are still being held captive in Gaza, though at least 35 of them have been confirmed dead by the IDF. During a truce in November 2023, 105 hostages were freed, and another 30 were released in January and February 2025, along with the bodies of eight other captives. IDF troops have rescued eight hostages alive and recovered the bodies of 41 captives.
Most family members of the hostages believe that another ceasefire deal is the only way to return their loved ones home, and that expanding the military operation in Gaza will only put their lives in further danger.
The Times of Israel Community.