Thousands of demonstrators rallied in Tel Aviv’s Habima Square, Thursday evening, April 24, against the ongoing criminal war in Gaza, organized by the “Standing Together” movement and sponsored among others, by Partnership for Peace, Hadash and Academics for Israel Democracy. “The people demand an end to the fighting!” chant protesters, many holding pictures of Hamas-held hostages, as well as Gazan children killed by Israeli attacks during the war.
Hadash MK Ofer Cassif during the demonstration against war in Gaza at Tel Aviv’s Habima Square, Thursday evening, April 24, 2025 (Photo: Zo Haderekh)
Police earlier this week tried to hinge their approval for the protest on the condition that demonstrators refrain from displaying signs with hostages and Gazan children, but Rula Daoud, a protest organizer, decried the police’s demand. “They said it was forbidden for us to wave signs and children from Gaza photos. The political police of Minister Itamar Ben Gvir are trying to censor criticism of the war and the government, and hurting freedom of expression,” she tells the crowd.
Zehava Galon, former chairwoman of the left-wing Meretz party, calls the ongoing fighting in Gaza a “political war.” “The fighting in Gaza has one reason and one reason only — Netanyahu’s coalition,” she says from onstage at Habima Square, as demonstrators boo the premier’s name.
She also brings up escalating settlers’ violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, telling the crowd to “ask why soldiers are being sent to serve as security for settler pogroms in Susya.” Susya is one of several Palestinian villages in the South Hebron Hills that have been targeted in an increasing number of extremist attacks by Israeli settlers.
The demonstration included a speech by Bashir al-Ziadna, who lost several relatives among the hostages in Gaz, and Anam Faraj Odeh from the Women for Peace movement.
Earlier, the demonstration was preceded by a symbolic display at the near Rothschild Avenue of dozens of anti-occupation activists with empty pots and plates, referencing the starvation policy imposed on Gaza’s population and protesting the massacre of Palestinian civilians, the blockade and destruction of civilian infrastructure in the Strip.
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=32610
