‘War of survival’: Thousands rally in rain as cabinet meets to oust Shin Bet head
Police smash windows of cars blocking entrance to PM’s office while passengers inside; former Likud minister says Netanyahu has ‘brought destruction’ upon Israeli society
Thousands of people protested on Thursday night in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office as the cabinet met to vote on dismissing Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.
Appearing as a sea of umbrellas in the driving rain, the demonstrators marched from Netanyahu’s residence to the nearby office while chanting, “We will never give up,” capping off a day of protests that saw clashes with police who in some cases used water cannons on protesters.
Some demonstrators protested by blocking the entrance to the Prime Minister’s Office with their cars ahead of the cabinet meeting. Footage showed policemen smashing the windows of the cars while passengers were inside to remove them.
A police official told the Ynet news site, “That’s a way to open a vehicle and tow it.”
The major protests launched Wednesday came as the government was preparing to oust Bar as well as Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, two officials who have drawn the ire of Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition in recent months.
Ministers met Thursday night to approve Bar’s dismissal, while reports indicated the cabinet could attempt to remove Baharav-Miara next week.
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The demonstrators were also protesting the government’s efforts to renew highly controversial legislation to increase political power over the judiciary and against the collapse of the Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal, which has left the fate of Israeli captives held in the Strip uncertain.
Speaking at the protest Thursday night, former Likud minister Dan Meridor cast Netanyahu as a danger to democracy.
“I am convinced that when [former prime minister] Yitzhak Shamir called Netanyahu an ‘angel of destruction,’ he did not imagine the destruction Netanyahu would bring upon Israeli society,” Meridor said.
“The destruction he is trying to bring on the country — it happened in Turkey and Hungary, and now it is happening in Israel. Our democracy is in danger,” said Meridor, a former justice minister.
The Democrats party leader Yair Golan, who earlier in the day was shoved to the ground by a policeman during a protest, called for new elections at the rally and vowed to “never submit ourselves to extreme nationalists.”
“We will throw this government into the garbage can of history,” he said, expressing his hope for Israel to be a “just, equal democratic state, a state that our children and grandchildren will want to live in.”
Protesters demonstrate outside a cabinet meeting where ministers were set to discuss the firing of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, in Jerusalem, March 20, 2025. (Barak Dror/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
One of Bar’s predecessors, Carmi Gillon, said at the protest that Netanyahu has the “character and soul of a criminal, and therefore his entire way of thinking is criminal.
“The Netanyahu government is a government of criminals. What does Netanyahu care if the economy is collapsing? This evening, he is burying the Shin Bet on the altar of his survival. He will also sacrifice the attorney general,” Gillon said.
“This could be one of the last demonstrations of the democratic State of Israel. This is a war of survival.”
Protesters fear that the prime minister is seeking to replace Bar with a loyalist who will quash the Shin Bet’s ongoing probe into ties between officials in his office and Qatar, as well as further solidify and potentially politicize the government’s hold over the country’s security apparatuses.
Drawing on the same rhetoric harnessed by US President Donald Trump, Netanyahu claimed Wednesday that Israel’s “leftist Deep State weaponizes the justice system to thwart the people’s will” by obstructing the work of his government.
Bar was not taking part in Thursday’s cabinet meeting, though he was invited. However, he sent a written response to the cabinet challenging the legality of his potential ouster and indicating he would seek to challenge it through legal means.
On Wednesday, at least 12 protesters were arrested during a rally outside Netanyahu’s home after a long day of mass protests. Police clashed with demonstrators as many attempted to break through crowd control barriers and block roads to traffic.
