Hundreds of protesters marched through downtown Jerusalem on Saturday evening, joining thousands of others who had traveled to different parts of Israel to demand that the government sign a “truce for hostage release” deal. detained by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023.
Some demonstrators beat drums, while others carried signs that read “The war is over, take them home!” and “Bring them back from hell.”
At the Karkur intersection in the Sharon region, anti-government protesters said an activist had been arrested for blocking the road.
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Alongside the main rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening, smaller demonstrations also took place in cities and towns including Beersheba, Modiin, Haifa and Rehovot.
Arrest of a man who blocked the Karkur intersection near Pardes Hanna during an anti-government demonstration calling for a hostage deal, November 23, 2024. (Credit: Dany Sternfeld/Movement for Democracy)
A group that provides legal representation to anti-government protesters said one person was arrested while demonstrating outside the home of Negev and Galilee Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf in south Tel Aviv.
Images posted on social networks show around fifty people in front of the minister’s home, with police pushing some demonstrators behind a security perimeter.
In downtown Tel Aviv, hundreds of anti-government demonstrators chanted slogans demanding an end to the war in Gaza and an agreement to release hostages, in front of the entrance to the army headquarters. Kirya, in Tel Aviv located on Begin road.
On both sides of the protesters, anti-government groups were selling merchandise and trying to rally activists to their cause.
One of them advocates “civil disobedience”, that is to say the refusal to go to work or send children to school, whether or not the Histadrut union organization declares a strike.
The group’s fundraising page shows that it is affiliated with the “Front,” a coalition of groups calling for the release of the hostages and the removal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A street away, on Place des Otages, the Forum of Families of Hostages and Disappeared held its main gathering. Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai was in attendance.
Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan Zangauker has been held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, 2023, accused Netanyahu of “needing the war to continue so he can avoid trial.”
The prime minister will begin testifying in his criminal trial next month, weeks after a court rejected his request for a postponement due to time constraints in handling the current conflict, which is unfolding on multiple fronts .
“The price is paid by 101 kidnapped people,” Zangauker said at the weekly news conference of hostage families outside the Kirya Army headquarters in Tel Aviv ahead of the main anti-government rally. -government on Begin road.
Yifat Calderon, whose cousin Ofer Calderon has also been detained in Gaza for 414 days, said the $5 million reward for anyone who can help free the Israeli hostages, announced by Netanyahu earlier this month, effectively puts “endangering the lives of the captives” by triggering a “gang war at their expense”.
She called on the government to reach a one-phase deal to release the 97 hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 who remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 people whose deaths were confirmed by the Israeli army.
Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, parents of slain hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, promised the other hostage families that they would stay with them until all the captives returned.
Both said they were not making a political statement, but were advocating for the remaining 101 hostages.
In paired sermons in English and Hebrew, they spoke of the weekly Torah portion, Hayei Sarah, in which the eponymous matriarch dies at the age of 127, leaving the crowd of several hundred people in the Place des Hostages of subjugated Tel Aviv.
Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son Hersh Goldberg-Polin was murdered by Hamas terrorists in Gaza after being kidnapped on October 7, 2023, during a rally calling for the release of Israelis still held by Hamas , Tel Aviv, November 23, 2024. (Credit: Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Jon Polin, in Hebrew, described the new widower, Abraham, at age 137: with one son childless and the other estranged, he is far from God’s promise that he will father a great nation.
“Did Abraham expect miracles? No,” Polin asked.
“He takes action, purchasing a burial site and sending his servant to find a wife for his son Isaac. »
“I appeal to all decision-makers: be like Abraham in the weekly Torah portion,” Polin said.
“Focus on the most important mission. Bring the hostages home,” he added.
“Don’t accuse, don’t point fingers. Be human beings. »
Rachel Goldberg, in English, noted that the traditional view of “our biblical commentators, our meforshim,” was that Sarah died when she learned that her only son Isaac had been sacrificed.
A silence settled over the crowd as Goldberg slowly spoke the words.
Israelis take part in a rally calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, at Hostages Square, in Tel Aviv, November 23, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
“We have lost too many dear souls,” she said.
“There are too many parents like us who have lost their children. »
Addressing the hostages, she said: “Everyone here loves you. »
“Stay strong. Survive,” she added, as she used to do to her son before he was executed by Hamas.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a week-long truce in late November. Four captives had previously been released. Eight living hostages were rescued by soldiers and the remains of 37 hostages were recovered, including those of three Israelis who were accidentally killed by the army.
The Palestinian terrorist group also holds two Israeli civilians who entered the Gaza Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.
