Several hundred anti-government protesters gathered outside Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday evening, July 21, to demand far-right Prime Miniser Netanyahu stay in Israel and sign the hostages’ deal with Hamas. Netanyahu was scheduled to leave Israel Sunday night, but the depart was postponed to Monday morning.
Despite the postpone, anti-government groups and hostages’ relatives went ahead with their pre-planned Sunday protest near Ben Gurion Airport. Organizers said they believed the delay was announced to “mislead the protesters”. Anti-Netanyahu demonstrations are also planned outside the prime minister’s engagements in the US, including a mass rally during his planned address to Congress on Wednesday.
Massive protests calling for the ouster of the Netanyahu-led far-right government and for a hostage deal were held Saturday evening across 80 of locations in Israel. The largest demonstrations were staged in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and Caesarea, with thousands participating at each.
Hundreds of Arabs and Jews demonstrated against the war in Gaza and the occupation of the Palestinian territories at the Kafr Qara junction, Saturday, July 20, 2024 (Photo: Zo Haderech)
Speaking in front of Israel’s military headquarters in Tel Aviv, Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan, 24, is a hostage in Gaza, declared that there is one person who stands between the families of those held captive and their loved ones, “and that is the prime minister, to whom it is more important to save his seat than it is to save lives.” “There is a deal on the table that’s been ready to be closed for several weeks. And we’re standing here today, after another wasted week, in which Netanyahu again torpedoed the deal] and dragged his feet,” she said on Saturday.
In Jerusalem, thousands of demonstrators, incensed over Netanyahu’s planned trip, marched with a banner that read: “No flight without a deal.” The protesters came to a standstill at the city’s Paris Square, adjacent to Netanyahu’s official residence, and continued to chant before the start of a joint hostage families and anti-government rally. “Only an end to the war will bring the hostages home,” said Mai Alvini-Peri, the grandson of Haim Peri, who was abducted by Hamas from Nir Oz on October 7 and confirmed dead by the IDF in early June. In northern Israel, protesters blocked the Karkur Junction at route 65, and called to “Stop the War,” bring hostages home, and hold early elections. Earlier at the same route, but near the Kafr Qara junction, hundreds of Arabs and Jews demonstrated against the war in Gaza and the occupation of the Palestinian territories. The protest was sponsored by Hadash and the Communist Party of Israel. A similar protest was held Saturday morning in the Arab city of Sakhnin.
