In Tel Aviv, clashes erupted Saturday night, March 2, between cops and protesters when demonstrators began marching on two main roads. Demonstrations also took place on Saturday in Haifa, Be’er Sheva, Kafr Kanna, Kfar Sava, Ra’anana, Nes Tziona, Ramat Gan, Rehovot, near Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea and other localities.

Hadash-Ta’al MKs Aida Touma-Sliman, Ofer Cassif and Ahmad Tibi during the demonstration against the war held at Kfar Kanna under the initiative of the Higher Follow-up Committee for Arab Citizens in Israel, Saturday 2, 2024 (Photo: Zo Haderech)

Bereaved families from the massacre on October 7 succeeded in shutting down the Begin thoroughfare heading south, and anti-government activists blocked Ayalon Highway. As protesters attempted to block traffic on the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, footage from the scene showed a car continuing to drive at high speeds after a protester climbed onto the hood. Seven people have been arrested at the anti-government protest in Tel Aviv for trying to block roads, according to the police.

The anti-government demonstration in Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv, near the Anti-Occupation Block activists rally, begins with a moment of silence for the victims of October 7 and the war. Hadas Eilon Carmi, a survivor of the October 7 massacre whose brother, Tal Eilon was killed in Kfar Aza was the first speaker at the demonstration. “I blame you, Bibi [Netanyahu] for destroying every value upon which we raised our children,” Eilon Carmi begins her speech. “I blame you, Bibi, for making a whole country bereaved,” she says. “In the place where you planted hate, brotherhood has sprouted.” Chants “elections now”, “Bibi go home” and “you’re at the head, you’re to blame” were cried throughout the protest.

A march by thousands of Israelis demanding the release of hostages held in Gaza reached Jerusalem on Saturday night. Thousands of demonstrators gathered in Jerusalem’s Paris Square, outside Netanyahu’s official residence, to call for a hostage deal. The protest, which takes place on a weekly basis, was significantly larger due to thousands of marchers who arrived in the city a few hours ago.

In Karf Kanna, northern Israel, hundreds of Arab-Palestinians citizens of Israel have taken to the streets since the early hours of Saturday morning in a demonstration demanding an end to the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. The protest was called by the Higher Follow-up Committee for Arab Citizens in Israel, and included participation from all segments of the Arab community, among them Hadash-Ta’al lawmakers, mayors of cities and towns, Muslim, Christian, and Druze religious figures, as well as activists, chanting slogans such as: “With our souls, with our blood, we sacrifice for you, Gaza.”

The Israeli police initially refused to grant a permit for a demonstration. Subsequently, the organization, represented by its chair and leading member of the Communist Party of Israel, Mohammed Barakeh, appealed to the Supreme Court against the police’s decision. Afterward, the police-imposed conditions on the location, time, and number of participants.

On Friday, dozens of Israeli activists, among them Hadash members, protested against the criminal war on Gaza outside Hatzerim Air Force Base in southern Israel. “We came to remind the pilots that human beings are dying at the tip of their fingers, that they have blood on their hands, that they can, must, refuse. This nightmare must end,” they said. In Jerusalem, in the early Friday afternoon hours, cops violently attached dozens of Israeli peace activists who gathered at Paris Square to express “pain and rage at the murdering of tens of thousands of people in Gaza.”

Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=31648