16 were arrested in demonstrations against Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government held Saturday evening, March 9, around Israel at about 30 locations including Tel-Aviv, Haifa, Be’er Sheva, Jerusalem, Umm al-Fahem, Taybeh, Caesarea, Kfar Sava, Herzliya, Ra’anana, Rehovot, Nes Tziona and Rosh Pina.

Anti-government protesters in Tel Aviv broke through a police barrier and blocked main traffic arteries on while chanting about the need for immediate elections, and police used force in order to subdue them. The clash followed two separate rallies, each drawing many thousands of participants and held roughly a block apart from each other, near the Israeli army headquarters at Begin Street.

An anti-government demonstration was staged on Kaplan Street — the main site of last year’s massive protests against the far-right government. The other rally focused on the retrieval of hostages kidnapped to Gaza on October 7 and was held at the plaza outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, as has been the case for the past 22 weeks. The space is now known as Hostages Square.

At the end of the anti-government rally, hundreds of protesters broke through the police barrier on Begin Street and continued northward while carrying torches. They blocked that road, blowing whistles and horns and calling for immediate elections, before being forcefully scattered by police using water cannons. 16 demonstrators were detained. About 20,000 demonstrators came to the demonstration in Kaplan Street, including the “Bloc against occupation” activists.

Hadash and CPI leaders at the protest held at Umm al-Fahem city against Gaza war, Saturday, March 9, 2024 (Photo: Zo Haderech)

Thousands attended another two rallies in Jerusalem, outside the Prime Minister’s Residence, and Haifa. Speakers at both protests criticized the government of Netanyahu. Early, led by Hadash and Communist Party of Israel activists, several hundred held a protest Umm al-Fahem city against Gaza war, demanding an immediate ceasefire. The protest is unprecedented because Israeli authorities have cracked down on any show of support for Gaza from Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel. Umm al-Fahem is the second-largest Arab community in Israel.

During the first days of the war in October, police violently broke up a similar demonstration in the city, arresting at least 12 people. One of those arrested was the human rights lawyer Ahmad Khalifa, who was only released in February after 110 days in prison. In November, the Israeli High Court enforced a ban on protests in the city, even as they allowed predominantly Jewish protests against the war elsewhere in the country. At Saturday morning another protest was held by Arab and Jewish women at the Taybeh junction, led by TANDI (Movement of Democratic Women in Israel) ahead a meeting to celebrate the International Women’s Day.

Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=31651